



Class T Z 3 

Book JUlll 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 







ANGELS’ VISITS 


TO MY FARM IN FLORIDA 



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ANGELS’ VISITS 

TO MY FARM IN FLORIDA 


BY 

GOLDEN LIGHT 


N'EW EDITION, MAY, igij 


“ Ring in the valiant man and free, 

The larger heart, the kindlier hand ; 
Ring out the darkness of the land, 
Ring in the Christ that is to be.” 


THE SANCTUARY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
43 West Newton Street 
Boston 


?Z3 

As 


Copyright, 1892, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, 


[A// rights reserved.^ 


Copyright, igij, 

By The Sanctuary Publishing Co. 


All rights reserved 





THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. 8IMONDS & CO., BOSTON, D. S. A. 

©CI.A3 5 0 48 3 


To the 


Rev. JOHN WESLEY BROWN, D.D., 

Rector of St. Thomas' Protestant Episcopal Church 

New York City. 

I take the liberty of dedicating this little book to you in fragrant 
77iemory of the many happy days we spent together under the old ho7ne 
roof near the little Trappe Church in Harford, Maryland, before the 
war. 

I do not ask you to endorse all the sentmienis a7id lessons set forth, 
but to accept the book as a token of love which has not diminished toward 
you since the day we parted, so long ago. I am sure you will reme?7iber 
how, in youthful confidence and spiritual ardour, we used to open our 
hearts to one another, aiid how, with those who are now exalted a^nong 
the blest in heaven, we used to sing — 

‘ ‘ Out on an ocea^t all boundless we ride. 

We're homeward bound, homeward bound." 

Golden Light. 


Florida, November 22d, 1891, 


Letter to the Editor. 


Minneapolis, N. C, May ist, 1913. 

My beloved Friend and Brother : 

It gives me pleasure to learn that you have arranged 
to bring out a new edition of “ Angels’ Visits,” the first 
literary child of The Sanctuary. 

The first edition did not have the extended circulation 
the merits of the book deserved. 

It is many years since I read it, and I have no copy 
of it now, but I recall the gist of the book and I do not 
now think of a single passage in which I would suggest 
a change. 

As author, will you retain the Sanctuary name. Golden 
Light? I think it would be well to do so. 

The organization of The Sanctuary forces, both on the 
mundane and supermundane plains of Human Life in 
A. D. 1887, with Consecration and Self-abnegation as its 
zvatchwords, soon began to manifest in realizable results, 
and now, after twenty-six years, turn our eyes wherever 
we will to every country of the world, and we see the 
work outlined in The Sanctuary by the highest intelli- 
gences of the supermundane spheres for the uplift of 
humanity bearing its perfect fruitage, and the harvest fast 
approaching the time for the garnering of the ripened 
grain. 

“ Angels’ Visits ” was, in a way, prophetic of what 
was to be, and what has already in part come to pass, 
and its reappearance at this time may open many eyes to 
see things in a more revealing light. Hoping the new 
edition may have a large and continuous sale, and that 
many more books may yet come from your pen, I remain, 

dear , ever your earnest and devoted co-laborer , 

J. F. Clarke. 

Note by the Editor. The hundreds of sanctuarians who 
know Mr. Clarke will have no difficulty in recognizing 
him in “Angels’ Visits,” even as the gifted “Mary Van 
Fit ” of the book is readily recognized by its readers in 
the person of one of the best beloved and trusted inter- 
preters of spiritual life in every community where she is 
known. Editor. 


FOREWORDS 


After a lapse of over twenty years, this book, called 
Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida, by Golden Light, 
is reborn — resurrected, so to speak — in obedience to a 
call from many quarters, and because the doctrines and 
lessons it inculcates have, since its first publication, greatly 
and happily advanced in the world and are now more 
firmly rooted and grounded in the faith and experience of 
mankind than when our author ventured to prophesy. 

This editor does not affirm that this unpretentious book 
has greatly aided in the rapid growth of the Spiritual Phi- 
losophy in the consciousness and acceptance of mankind, 
but it still expresses the truth and is abreast of the newest 
revelation. Beyond doubt, also, it has been a blessing to 
many. 

It is reasonable to infer that this new edition of Angels’ 
Visits will not inflame the critics as the first did, nor call 
forth from Christian centers the unjust and bitter con- 
demnation. The author’s contention that true Spiritual- 
ism and the Christianity of Christ are one is now conceded 
by the most eminent Christians and only denied and held 
in pitiful scorn by the ignorant and the hypocritical. 

The persistent ignoring of the earnest intelligent advo- 
cates and ministers of the Church of Spiritualism, espe- 
cially in its organized form, by common Ecclesiastical 
orders, is still much the vogue, but shamefacedness accom- 
panies it in every case, and the wrinkles of bigotry dis- 
figuring the countenance of every detractor prove the ab- 
sence of the “ spirit of power, of love, and of a sound 
mind,” which genuine Christianity imparts to the sincere 
believer. 

vii 


\ 


viii 


FOREWORDS. 


The phenomenon which accompanied the first utterances 
of those who “ spake as the Spirit gave them utterance," 
that is, the humble poor believed” still attends its min- 
istry — and there is great joy among the angels. 

THE AUTHOR AMONG HIS CRITICS 

Rummaging among some old manuscripts of Golden 
Light’s the other week, I fell upon a quire of faded scrap 
paper covered with carefully extracted comments from a 
great number of public journals, accompanied with pen- 
cilled notes and reflections almost obliterated, in the hand- 
writing of the old farmer-author, dated 1892-93. 

Upon a cursory examination both of the journalistic re- 
views of the book and the author’s comments, I deter- 
mined to rescue them from oblivion and include some of 
them in this edition, asking pardon of everybody, for the 
gratification of friends and in respectful memory of the 
reviewers. 

It will be seen that some of the reviews — the best writ- 
ten ones — are rather commendatory, and the adverse 
ones are well met and considered by the good-natured 
farmer, who, as will be noted, got over his fright at finding 
himself condemned for daring to write a whole book full 
of red flaunts in the face of Bashanic bulls of literary and 
religious fulminate. I remember him saying to himself as 
softly as ever Uncle Toby spoke to a fly, — will pay 
my respects to these bellicose savants in the next edition.’’ 

The reader is respectfully referred to the appendix for 
Golden Light’s talk with his critics, the reading of which 
will, I hope, sharpen the appetite for the book itself. 

The Editor. 


Boston, Mass., May, 1913. 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


CHAPTER I. 

A TRIFLE PERSONAL. 

I AM not a farmer by the law of heredity. My 
father was a very capable mechanic, and taught me 
his trade before I was fifteen years old. 

Old-fashioned was father. 

He used to say that every boy should be taught a 
useful trade, so that when the inevitable emergency 
came along he could turn to with vigor and make his 
way cheerfully. 

How often during the past twenty years have I 
had occasion to remember father’s words, and not 
without gratitude for his wise forethought ! 

For, here, on my farm in Florida, 1 must not con- 
fine myself to the ordinary hold or drwe work of the 
farm, but always there is occasion for the application 
of the mechanic’s skill as well as the philosopher’s 
wisdom. 

Farm life in Florida is the ideal life. In the great 
productive West, — to which El Dorado the illustrious 


6 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


farmer, journalist, and statesman, Horace Greeley, 
used to point the way in this characteristic manner : 
“Go West, young man; go West,” — there are immense 
fields of wheat and corn, annually yielding their golden 
bounty in the mere routine of plowing, sowing, and 
reaping. 

1 have heard them called ‘ ‘ the harvest fields of the 
world, ” and several other comprehensive and poetical 
abbreviations, and what an enviable, glorious person- 
age is he, who with skill, labor and patience, not to 
speak of wisdom, guides the subtle powers which 
slumber in the earth to such beneficent achievements ! 
But is he a farmer, and are those vast plains of wav- 
ing corn farms } 

In a sense — yes. 

According to “Gunter” — yes. 

Judged by the activity of the grain market — yes. 
And so forth. 

But from a Florida point of view — doubtful at least. 

I say “doubtful” timidly, but deep down in the pro- 
found depth of my agricultural consciousness with a 
Florida bias — by no means. No ! 

This is not envy on my part. 

If I might indulge myself, I could easily demon- 
strate my point and clearly show, that, while any or- 
dinary, not to say raw, foreigner, just landed on our 
shores, can plunge headlong, and in any language, 
successfully into such farming, it takes an accom- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


7 


plished coparcener of nature — a polyglot and polyg- 
onal man, so to speak, to seduce from the richer, 
and more subtle, raw acres of Florida soil the cor- 
responding and seasonable harvests. 

Farming m Florida ts farming. 

I intend no joke. 

I mean to say that, given knowledge, skill, devo- 
tion, patience, well seasoned with the cardamom of 
common sense ; and given likewise a llat-woods 
farm in Florida, the divine pleasure of farming is re- 
alized, — the original meaning of the original commis- 
sion, given to the original human being, as he stood 
gazing upon the original farm m the sunshine of the 
first morning, is understood as it never was in the 
worn-out glebes of England, and as it never can be 
in the one-crop blizzard-blasted plains of the West ! 

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him 
into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." 

Alas ! if the record be true, he, the man, did not 
keep it long,— I guess he went West. But Paradise 
is rapidly being restored, and now all inspired sign- 
boards read : “Go South, young man ; go to Florida." 


8 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


CHAPTER 11. 

LOCATION. 

There is much in location. 

One grows into surroundings — and the place and 
the man come to complement each other. Where the 
coveted Alpine flower grows would be a poor place for 
the cultivation of strawberries or of pine-apples, or of 
suppadillos. 

Hills and high lands for homes and observation ; 
but flat lands, low lands well drained, for gardens 
and fields. 

For the past quarter century, in Florida, the rage 
has been, under the fostering care of land agents, for 
‘ ‘ high, rolling, pine lands. ” Every advertising circular 
describes such lands for homes, orange groves, farms, 
etc., and the language of puff has long been exhausted. 

Thousands of earnest toilers have been swamped, 
so to speak, in the “ high, rolling, pine lands,” and, 
if there are any surviving settlers within one hundred 
miles of where I am writing, they are looking with 
wistful eyes towards the long despised bottoms, or 
“ flat- woods,” lands, just now proving their value and 
productiveness. In passing through this (South 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


9 

Florida) country, before it was discovered by “boom- 
ers,” I was greatly impressed with the fact, that every 
settlement, every old settler, every ‘ *' cracker ” farmer, 
and every cattle ranger, lived on some gentle plateau 
in the flat lands. Settlements were few, and far apart, 
but when found, they would invariably be found on 
comparatively low lands, and the growing corn, sugar 
cane, orange trees, potatoes, peas, and rice would 
testify to productiveness under the prevailing system 
of “cowpenning.’' 

Every wild orange grove in Florida will be found 
in the low, flat lands — and not on the “ rolling, high, 
pine lands.” It it quite safe to drive your stake firmly 
down on any abandoned “patch,” once the temporary 
home of a “ cow-boy,” or a “ cracker ” farmer. 

They knew good land, and never made a mistake 
in location. 

I can now see from my window just such a “ patch.” 
When I saw it for the first time it was surrounded by 
very low, flat lands, which, during the rainy season, 
were much flooded. At times, over portions of it, one 
could easily paddle his canoe. 

But a system of drainage has made it available for 
planting all the year round, and for miles, in every 
direction, there is no dearth of available land for 
homes, farms, and gardens. The soil is sandy loam 
underlaid with clay — the best of soil. • 

This clay is within five inches, twenty inches, two 


lO ANGELS' VISITS. 

feet, eight feet, ten feet, as the case may be, of 
the warm surface, but there it is, and it forms the 
basis of successful farming — holding moisture, oxi- 
gen gas, retaining fertilizers, and contributing con- 
stantly back-bone to the genial surface under cultiva- 
tion. 

Nature's secret springs of action are here in har- 
monious abundance ; and the sunshine, the rains, the 
dews, and the human co-operation complete the pic- 
ture. 

The question of drainage is simple enough. The 
frequent and abundant lakes are almost invariably 
lower than the flat lands, and drains cut towards and 
into them, sufficiently drain, even during the rainy 
season, as a rule. 

But an occasional flooding out does no harm, for 
here we can so rotate and regulate crops, as to be 
able to lose one or two in a season occasionally. 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


II 


CHAPTER HI. 

REMINISCENT. 

I HAVE no very special object in view in writing 
this book — no grudges to pay off, no enemies to 
punish, no speculation to boom, no pet theories to 
ventilate. 

I am getting along in years and am an old Flor- 
idian, a genuine “carpet-bagger ” from “way-back,” 
for a generation has passed on and out since I 
planted my staff in this goodly heritage. 

If I am a little garrulous, I hope my manifest sin- 
cerity will find charity and patience with my kind 
reader ; and if I become prosy here and there, it will 
not be difficult for you to put yourself in my place, 
and so condone the offence in accordance with the 
sweet spirit of the golden rule. 

Out of the quiet orderly life of nature, I fancy my- 
self speaking to the rushing, pushing, energetic, rapid- 
transit man of affairs, in the pulsing heart of highest 
civilization ; and if I halt in my speech or lose my 
breath occasionally, I am sure of gentle treatment, 
for the burden of my speech will bear very close re- 
semblance to the vanished picture of your dreams. 


12 


ANGELSr VISITS. 


may be. and — who knows ? — perhaps the voice may 
sometimes sound familiar ! 

I was going on to say that I came into this land 
many years ago, in easy stages, from the frigid, rigid 
North, mainly in search of health and balmy breezes. 

I have found what I have sought — and several in- 
cidentals besides. 

I have taken active interest in all current matters 
from the beginning. I have even dabbled a little in 
politics, as every good citizen should, and have firmly 
held to my convictions — prejudices too, perhaps — ex- 
pressing them in all convenient, and sometimes 
inconvenient occasions and places. In a word, I 
have, in a sense, forced myself into Florida conditions 
physically, morally, and politically. 

Inheriting a positive nature and a few convictions, 
with a decided tendency to see the hopeful side of 
things, I have had a sufficiently varied experience, 
and have walked through several haunted paths. 

If you will pardon me, I will say that I have per- 
sonally known every prominent public character, of all 
shades of ambition and opinion and skin, who has 
appeared upon the surface of affairs in this State during 
the eventful years of the past generation. This knowl- 
edge fills me with conflicting emotions as Hook back. 

A few persons who were active and potent in public 
matters when I planted myself here, still live, and are 
still active and progressive. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


13 

The majority answer here no more when the long 
roll is called. 

It is a sadly interesting review that forces itself upon 
me at this moment, and I will not yield to the tempta- 
tion to second the thoughts that naturally arise. Only 
this I must say : justice and humanity, in the long 
run, gain upon selfishness and the evil purpose. 
Beneath the surface of things throbs the great law of 
rightwardness, and, day and night, in all seasons and 
under all outward seeming, pulses on, and on, and on. 

The evil doer, the schemer for temporary advantage 
for self or party, the dishonest, and the bitter pessi- 
mist, whether working with intelligent intent or in 
blind servitude — all come to grief in the conquering 
time. At bottom, the law of Right prevails, and, 
soon or late, will announce itself in all languages, and 
to all ears, and along all lines (having the right of 
way) on top. 

Five and twenty years’ retrospect must include many 
alternations in human affairs, and here, in Florida, no 
less than in the older settled States of this Union. 

• Doubtless you have heard of ‘ ‘ carpet bag rule ” m 
terms of bitterness and reproach, of derision and em- 
phatic denunciation. Speaking for Florida, and without 
going into particulars, I will say that it was not in all 
respects a perfect and desirable “ rule,” nor was it in 
any respect wholly bad. 

No man living or dead, can, with justice, contradict 


14 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


what I here say : — that the great, the mighty impulse 
on whose widening and abounding wave we are all 
coming into fine havens of material and intellectual 
prosperity to-day, was created and first fostered and 
recognized by the “Carpet-baggers,” so called, in 
Florida. 

Those who went down in the struggle of material 
and political reconstruction, earnestly contending for 
the faith that was in them, do not, in the mind of justice, 
sleep in unhonored graves, — while those who still 
live are found in the front rank of honorable, respon- 
sible, progressive, and prosperous citizen. The sons 
of the “Veterans,” hold the Forts both of principles 
and possessions so hardly established and vicariously 
vindicated by their fathers. 

The New South is planted in the just purposes and 
heroic endurance, and unfolds out of the glorious pro- 
phesies, of these worthy pioneers of the new age. 

And as the years tell their tale, it will appear as part 
of the brightness of every day, that the “carpet-bag ” 
era and those who responsibly possessed it in Florida, 
was an era of parturition, and the best things of to- 
day, of to-morrow, and of many to-morrows, are but 
the legitimate offsprings thereof. Mark you, I do not 
speak as a partisan, nor for purposes of controversy. 

I state, in the quiet shade, after stormy years of 
experience and observation, with sufficient participa- 
tion in events to give impartial character to my testi- 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


^5 

mony, the plain and unquestionable truth in deduction, 
and in simple justice to the dead and to the living 
of all shades of complexion and opinion. 

As I am not writing a political history, nor setting 
up a vindication of any particular course of public pro- 
cedure, nor entering up final judgment on any class 
of offenders in the struggle which ends in progress, — 
nothing I have said can rip open old sores, nor call up 
“Banquo’s ghost,” before you, or you, or you, good 
sir, no matter whether you agree with me or not. 

At any rate you cannot refuse to me the satisfaction, 
as 1 look back over all the eventful years since the 
alarms of war ceased among us, and we were bap- 
tized into the new spirit of nationality with very vague 
intuitions of salvation somehow, of bowing head un- 
covered, in respectful memory, to the brave and true 
men and women who, from the chaos and incongrui- 
ties of the dark days of reconstruction, evolved and 
projected forth the marvellous achievements and pos- 
sibilities that so beautify and commend our State of 
Florida to-day. 

Let us imitate the immortal brothers Cheeryble who, 
when they were about to engage in a particularly en- 
joyable affair, said : 

“ For these and all other blessings, brother Charles, ” 
said Ned. 

“Lord make us truly thankful, brother Ned,” said 
Charles. 


AJVGEZS^ VISITS. 


l6 


CHAPTER IV. 

SOWING THE SEED. 

Our staples hereabouts are sugar cane, rice, and 
hay, yet I suppose I may class myself as a truck- 
farmer — one who attends to the cultivation of vegeta- 
bles for the early northern markets. 

The truck-farmer of our country must be reckoned 
among the most industrious, wide-awake, and in- 
telligent cultivators of the soil. Theirs is the most dif- 
ficult and, sometimes, the most precarious task. They 
are most liberal in the treatment of mother earth, 
and, in the nature of things, come to understand the 
deepest secrets of nature. Their constant study is to 
improve in all directions, and the fascinations of their 
daily occupations are subtle and unspeakable. 

To produce for observation and public approval, 
a new succulent, a fresh type, a richer expression of 
garden triumph, is the ambition of every enthusiastic 
trucker from Long Island to Key Biscayne, and the 
joy of discovery and successful rivalry are matters of 
universal participation. 

Florida is unequaled for right conditions both of 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


17 

soil and climate ; and in the coming years the experi- 
ments and triumphs of ourintelligem farmers, in close 
confidence with most generous nature, will be the 
lily work on the top of the pillars of husbandry, for 
the delight and admiration of the world. 

It is now the first week in October, and we have 
just made our first seed-bed for the season, the seed 
being cabbage. 

If you are a practical gardener you may pass this 
chapter by, but if you have just settled in Florida, or 
contemplate doing so soon and are looking about 
you, prospecting for a place to alight on, just read on, 
please. 

The most important part of the farm, to the 
trucker, must be the seed-bed. 

Mine is just one acre square, and a nice job we 
have had in bringing it into condition. 

It is a sandy loam with clay not far beneath, a 
little rolling toward the south, and handy to running 
water. 

The chief gardener has taken great pains in plow- 
ing, harrowing, re-plowing and re-harrowing this 
precious bit of mother land. Every rootlet has been 
taken out. Every lump has been pulverized, the hand 
doing the finishing touch. Every inch has been 
vitalized with proper fertilizer, thoroughly distributed, 
and the long beds, • reaching clear across from side to 

side, running north and south 209 feet or thereabouts, 

2 


1 8 ANGELS^ VISITS. 

have been firmed down and raked over with care and 
perfect skill. 

The fertilizer has been distributed with intelligent 
regard to the natural condition of each portion of the 
field, taking into the account also the last production. 
The satisfaction of the farmer, as he leans a moment 
on his rake; glancing up and down the long parti- 
tions, is something contagious. He smiles and nods 
to each beautiful subdivision as though in reciprocal 
recognition, and caresses in his thought each bounti- 
ful mother-to-be. He does not begrudge the time and 
labor spent in bringing into responsive readiness 
this choice field. 

Time is very important in this particular work. I 
mean that one should begin in time and not trust the 
seed to the germinating bed too soon, nor until you 
are sure that the fertilizing elements are thoroughly 
incorporated. 

A cold seed-bed is unproductive, and nothing will 
reach perfect maturity in time from it. 

One too hot with fresh fertilizing matter is quite 
destructive, so that the happy mean, the perfect con- 
dition, must be sought, labored for, waited for, and 
must be found ; and the genuine farmer will not grow 
impatient, lose courage or temper, while, under his 
gentle manipulations, the fruitful condition is ap- 
proaching. Well, we are ready, and to-day, farmer 
Dan is whistling consolingly to himself and encourag- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


19 

ingly to the earth as he pushes the seed planter before 
him, depositing the seed, covering and rolling in, as 
he goes. 

This is the era of reciprocity, and I felt that our 
chief statesmen might learn a lesson from farmer Dan 
and the beautiful seed-bed, as they so cordially com- 
plimented each other. 

Mazzini used to say that co-operation is the method 
of the future. 

This is the future. 

There is always a question about seed, and the 
desiderata are : — true to name, vitality, and freshness. 

Here, sometimes, the very best farmer is caught, for 
your true farmer is easily victimized along this line, 
and a much lauded seed will haunt him nights until 
he learns wisdom by experience. 

“ I misdoubt this seed, sir, ’ said farmer Dan as he 
reached the end of the drill where I stood. 

“For what reason } ” I asked. 

“ Well, sir, it feels light, and looks oldish, and is 
not well graded, I doubt.” 

My head farmer is a Scotchman, and has a keen eye 
for signs for and against, besides being enthusiastic 
in his profession. I suggested that he increase the 
quantity in the drill as an easement of his fear. 

The drills are beautifully finished. 

They are over 200 feet in length, 18 inches apart, 
straight and clean. 


20 


ANGELS^ V/SITS. 


How many crops have failed, not for lack of right 
conditions in the soil, nor because of skimp labor, nor 
for want of proper fertilizer, but because the seed 
was poor. 

Thousands of dollars are lost every season through 
the dishonesty of seed vendors, who, sometimes with 
high reputation, palm upon the too confiding farmer, 
their old stock. 

The seedsman is a most trusted fellow-citizen, and 
when the millennium of labor and civilization comes, 
he will deserve to be. 

But as yet, quite a few play sad tricks, for it is easy 
to say that the seed was all right but the man and the 
land were all wrong. 

Moral : get your seed from the most trustworthy 
seedsmen, men who cannot afford to lose their good 
name, and whose business is such, both in extent 
and character, as to inspire with confidence and 
courage. 

Be shy of “novelties” with flaming descriptions 
and burning prices. 

Don’t be carried away by some unprecedented result 
obtained in some mythical paradise of luck, and spend 
your scarce dollars for something too new to be 
known. 

Go slowly along here. 

With you it means a year’s labor lost, an increase 
of debt, a bitter prospect, and an incurable grievance. 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


21 


Stick to well-known and well-proved varieties for 
your chief dependence, and deal lightly — very — with 
the “ futures ” of the seed chevaliers. 

My neighbor Jencks could a tale unfold here-anent, 
if he would, for it was only last year that he was 
“sold” in a new and glorious tomato, which was to 
increase his product at least three-fold, and his bank 
account by many figures. It proved to be an old and 
discarded acquaintance brought round again with a 
fine fiourish of words and promises under a new name. 

1 do not blame Jencks, for he is one of your gener- 
ous, progressive fellows who is always keenly alive 
to every real improvement, and who uses on his little 
plantation the most approved labor-saving tools. 

It is your warm, generous, go-ahead fellows who 
are oftenest taken in by the sharpers of the trade. 

‘ ‘ There ye are, ” shouted farmer Dan, as he looked 
back over the finished beds. “ Now do yer duty, an’ 
it plaze ye, and God bless ye for luck.” 

I thought I heard a warn “amen” arise from the 
congregation of seed-beds — but I suppose it was all 
in my fancy. 


22 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


CHAPTER V. 

SIXTH NOVEMBER. 

An important day this, and one to be remembered 
by no less a personage than the President of the 
United States, for on this day in the year of political 
strife, 1888, Benjamin Harrison was elected to that 
high position. 

Some one has made the odious comparison of a 
President’s induction into office, and his retirement 
therefrom. 

It is a cruel thing to do, because few men can bear 
the ordeal. 

It is an unjust thing to do, because time is all im- 
portant in estimating character, and the effect of 
actions and administration. 

Hasty conclusions are apt to be overturned by time, 
and we have had few Presidents of whom it may not 
be said — “well done.” 

Of our present President it must be said at this 
juncture, his term being but half served, that he wisely 
hides his personality behind very broad, deep, and 
brilliant acts of statesmanship — giving honor, and 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


23 

fame to an impersonal administration, and shedding 
glory upon the American age. All nations beyond 
seas, and all citizens within our State borders, are 
feeling mighty pulsations and the national spirit as 
never before. A sense of progress, safety and secu- 
rity, like an all-pervading atmosphere, is omnipresent 
and inspiring. Ozone is dominant in the political 
atmosphere. 

Peace is emphasized. Progress is on the stretch 
and bound— the home-stretch so to speak. We are 
facing about toward each other from all extremes, 
and somehow there is a hallowing light on every 
countenance — a sign of deeper fellowship, and true 
brotherhood. 

Reciprocity is the new word for the old evangelism 
of humanity, and the distant zones respond. 

I see it stated that Mr. Harrison, who must have 
something to do with all this, is not possibly visible, 
because he is hidden beneath his “grandfather’s 
hat ! ” Good, say I. 

Perhaps also he is covered with his grandfather’s 
mantle ! and perhaps he is inspired with the invinci- 
ble, loyal, progressive American spirit of all our 
grandfathers ! 

It is doubtless so. 

Well, five weeks ago we sowed cabbage seed, and 
to-day we begin to set out the plants. 

On time, you see. 


24 


A//GELS' VISITS. 


The interval has been busy, you may believe, for 
the land must be prepared, if we would realize the 
bounty of harvest. 

I am an advocate of deep plowing and intensive 
farming. 

Shallow plowing is the rule hereabouts, because, for 
the most part, the soil is light, sandy and dry. 

But it so happens that ours is not so, but is stiff, 
with a strong clay sub-soil. So we plowed once as 
deeply as we could, then went over it with the cuta- 
way harrow, then after a few days cross-plowed, 
going a little deeper. 

Upon this preparation we scattered the fertilizer : — 
first, crushed cotton seed, then bone meal and potash 
at the rate of i,ooo pounds and 200 pounds per. acre 
respectively. 

This we harrowed in thoroughly with the cutaway 
and smoothed it down nicely with a Meeker harrow. 
It would rejoice your rustic heart to see the field 
after this treatment, level, smooth, soft, warm, expect- 
ant, and throbbing with life. 

And what a subtle fragrance ! Nothing gratifies 
your true farmer like a well prepared field, unless it 
be taking from it the abundant harvest. 

Well, the one precedes, and is answerable for the 
other. I wish I could remember my dear old friend 
Sidney Lanier s poem on Jones of Georgia, who made 
the discovery, after much travail and failure and 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


25 


hopping about like a dissatisfied, predatory grass- 
hopper, that 

“ There is more in the man than there is in the land.” 

Don’t fail to read it should it ever fall under your 
eye. 

Sidney was a favorite child of nature, and in all his 
moods lay close to her great heart and drew thence 
his almost matchless inspiration. “ There is more 
in man,” who properly considers, appreciates, pre- 
pares, and cultivates his land than in the land per se ; 
and the lesson is, that if you want your land to break 
forth in seasonable benedictions, you must give it 
seasonable co-operation, attention, and help. Just so. 
You must come into close, confidential relations with 
your land. 

What a luxury it is to work in prime, responsive 
soil ! 

And what a delight it is to see and feel the mellow 
earth, enriched by your care and labor, yielding up 
its thank-offerings year by year ! 

A man will grow to his land, until it will seem to 
him that a new and heartier welcome is breathed and 
exhaled out toward him every time he approaches it, 
and the growing harvest to be, speaks, in sweetest 
tones, of fellowship and genial relationship to his 
ready ear and responsive heart. 

Some farmers I have known first aliuse and beat 


26 ANGELS' VISITS. 

their land, and then set out to starve it into product® 
iveness. 

I dare say you have noticed it yourself, as you have 
considered the strange ways of men. 

Well, the dogs came and licked the beggars sores 
as he lay, helpless and friendless and neglected, at 
the rich man’s gate ; and so come the weeds and 
sedge and vermin covering all the neglected and 
starved land, out of a pitiful fellow-feeling, perhaps. 

I have in my mind’s eye at this moment, a certain 
Seld owned by farmer Noshucks, and every time I 
pass by, it seems to look ashamed and disgraced as 
though it were responsible for its forlorn and base 
appearance. 

You can’t blame the land. 

The man is unworthy of it, and is always mad 
when he plows it ; abusing it as worthless when it is 
dimply the victim of his stinginess. 

Every year Noshucks plants it to corn (without 
one ounce of fertilizer), and every year the nubbins 
grow fewer and fewer and wretchedly less. 

Last year he didn’t have corn enough to breed i 
worm. 

I pity that land, for it would prove its worth if 
there was more in the man. 

Like priest like people, 

* Like man like land. 

There is a spirit in nature that responds sympa- 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


27 

thetically to the caresses and approach of man, and 
every true farmer who is on good, familiar terms with 
his land, and doesn’t let it out to mere croppers, is 
conscious of a sense and relationship other than that 
of mere ownership. 

There is a conscious relationship — a deep, subtle, 
spiritual affiliation, too real for words. 

In this, most of all, lies the pleasure, and the profit 
too, of farming, especially here in Florida. 

My idea is not new, for here are some words of 
Goethe, conveying in ampler sweep, the same : — 

“With every green tree whose rich leafage sur- 
rounds us, with every shrub on the roadside where 
we walk, with every grass that bends to the breeze 
in the field through which we pass, we have a natural 
relationship — they are our true compatriots. 

“The birds that hop from twig to twig in our gar- 
dens, that sing in our bowers, are part of ourselves ; 
they speak to us from our earliest years, and we learn 
to understand their language.” 

Farmer Dan has just called to say that, on account 
of the prevailing drought, we must needs use water 
in setting out the tender plants. 

“It’s no in reason,” continues farmer Dan, “that 
thae plants should take ony parteeclar an' growsome 
likin' till the sile (tho’ mun but she’s in foine fettle), 
'thout a wee drap to sustain thae faybers (fibers) in 
the transeetion.” 


28 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


Quite right, farmer Dan, for as the new-born child 
turns to its mother’s bosom for nourishment and 
does not fail to find the life-giving drop, so these 
tender plantlets must not find mother Nature’s breast 
dry and moistureless when transplanted — born again 
— to her. 

So the lads were called, and as each planter made 
the opening in the warm earth in which to set the 
plant, a cup of W'ater was poured into it, simulta- 
neously with the setting of the plant. 

It was deftly done, and each plant lived of the 
entire 4,000 set out during the day. 

“ It’s a gude start,” said farmer Dan, as we walked 
homeward through the fields. 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


29 


CHAPTER VL 

NOSHUCKS. 

1 HAVE already mentioned one of my fellow-craft — 
farmer Noshucks. 

He is what farmer Dan calls a “Ne’er-do-well.” 

He was not born a farmer, as you would at once 
surmise, should you see him tramping over his un- 
fortunate fields. To whatever trade he was born, 
it seems evident that he quarrelled with It soon after. 
1 have nothing to do with that, and for fear that 
1 might do him or his ancestry injustice, I will con- 
fine my reflections strictly to his sad, shiftless, aim- 
less, and profitless method of farming. 

One thing I must say — he is not a “ cracker/’ 
Neither is he a “ cow-boy,” nor a “cattle king,” nor 
even an “orange grower.” Pie is a sort of squatter, 
in the inoffensive sense, and has settled on the land 
in a sort of blighting way. 

To do him Justice, I must not make the impression 
on your mind that he is quite ignorant, uneducated, 
and vagrant. He is a busy old fellow. In his 
farming operations, he is constantly guilty of being 
too early or too late, and holds to the pernicious 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


30 

doctrine that, as God made the land, He put every- 
thing (except, perhaps, seed,) into it that should be 
there, and hence to bother with fertilizing compounds 
is to “go agin natur. 

As a consequence, alas ! poor old Noshucks is land- 
poor, and his land is man-poor. They are ill-mated. 
He confines his regular farming to raising corn, 
but, as I have already shown, his achievements in 
this direction are noteworthy only on account of their 
barrenness — as to corn. Some years he attempted 
beans, but he was unfortunate in that he planted late 
in November ; and as we had a smart frost in January, 
just as his few beans were maturing, one morning he 
beheld such desolation as only frost or fire can in- 
flict. Not a bean-stalk remained — and his loss was 
total. Being quick oi temper, he lavished several en- 
comiums on the climate and gave his poor bean patch, 
that was, “particular fits,” as a sympathetic neigh- 
bor, who had strolled in to condole with him, de- 
scribed it. 

The next year, I remember, he set out to compass 
success, and planted his beans late in March, the 
danger from frost being past ; but, alas ! when his 
beans were ready to gather, some six crates, I believe, 
the market was glutted from all points of the compass, 
and his commission-merchant sent him a bill for 
$1. 50 expenses. 

The bill was not collected. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


31 

These are little matters to you, Madam, no doubt, 
yet do they suggest a very important factor or princi- 
ple in our line of life — namely, seasonableness. 

There is a time. 

The good book tells us that in plain words, — a 
time to do this, that, and the other, and so Florida 
climate and Noshucks’ land tell us that there is a 
time to plant beans so as to avoid the frost and 
take the market — or vke versa. 

When your husband fails in business, and his latest 
speculation bursts asunder leaving him more than 
bankrupt, and you sell off the hric-a-brac to raise the 
wherewith to bring you to Florida, and, like Noshucks, 
you descend upon a coveted bit of land whereon to 
dwell and sit “under your own vine and fig tree,” 
etc., etc., in the bright perspective, so to speak, and, 
in the quiet meantime you find it necessary to raise 
beans — you will thank me for holding up before your 
contemplation the sad mistake of farmer Noshucks — 
Mr. Jonah Noshucks, late of the hill region of Montana. 

What, then, do you ask ? 

Shall we give up beans ? 

Noshucks would say that the best way to raise beans 
is to let them alone ; but I do not agree with him. 

There is a time, and if yoru will honor me with your 
company to the end of my gossip about my farm, 
I think 1 can promise you a mess, fresh, crisp, tender 
and meaty for our mutual repast, and an abundant 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


32 

supply for the distant markets at remunerative prices 
— and — seasonable. 

Has farmer Noshucks then given up, abandoned 
the free, the healthy, the independent life of the farmer 

By no means. On the contrary he is following 
the example of statesmen, philosophers, politicians, 
governors, and candidates for the presidency, more 
than ever a horny-handed, etc. , — a farmer of farmers, 
so to speak. 

He has joined the Alliance, and has applied — in his 
zeal for the good of the order — for the arduous labo- 
rious thankless, responsible, yet honorable position 
of Lecturer at large ! 

Should you ever have the pleasure of listening to 
farmer Noshuck, his eloquent vindication of Nature’s 
bountifulness, his insinuating and convincing defense 
of the claims of the oppressed, yet responsible constit- 
uents of our nation, the bread-winners of the human 
race, the oft-fleeced, long-suffering tillers of the soil 
— the downtrodden farmers “ one of whom he owns 
himself with pride to be,”— you need not for a moment 
suppose that his knowledge of farming, and his suc- 
cess thereat, did not amount to — beans. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


33 


CHAPTER VII. 

A BIT OF SUNDAY. 

This is the i6th of November — and all's well. 
Planting has gone forward nicely, especially cabbage ; 
rains have fallen betimes, and the air is full of ozone, 
balm of gilead, elixir of life itself, and what you will. 

Nights, cool and bracing, the gentle breezes from 
the Gulf yonder seasoning nature’s breath and con- 
ducing to sweetness of disposition and refreshing sleep. 

Sunday on my farm is not what many would call 
a strictly religious day. There is work to be done — 
such as looking after the stock, some necessary tinker- 
ing sometimes, and always a quiet stroll over the new 
made fields, making close acquaintance with growing 
crops. Also, I may as well confess it, most of our 
plans for continued work are laid and discussed on 
Sunday. 

If one is inclined to sociability, neighbors will drop 
in, dressed in store clothing (it used to be homespun), 
and there is no dearth of pleasant gossip, often serious 
talk, and always cordial greetings. 

Farmers, as a rule, especially Florida farmers, are 

3 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


34 

like their fields, good in spots. Every man has his 
fad, his hobby, his weakness, his faults if you will. 
But I have noticed through a somewhat observant 
life, that daily contact with nature, rather apart from the 
human side of it, fosters a brave and generous dispo^ 
sition within limits, creates an indefinable religious- 
ness, and strengthens moral qualities. 

There is an imperceptible education, and as age 
comes on with its wrinkles and its fatigues, I notice 
that the faithful farmer ripens and mellows with 
much of the grace and beauty of his recurring crops. 
If his life has been uneventful, it has been useful. 
If it has been monotonous, it has been a steady growth, 
free from the baleful evils and influences of the higher 
civilization. To a stalwart physical frame the result 
of regular habits and hand-in-hand companionship 
with nature, there is joined a buoyant, hopeful spirit, 
whose eyes roam, perhaps with no definite purpose, 
over fairer fields stretching far away into the eternities. 

The farmer’s life, I mean your genuine farmer, 
passes amid and close by, the mightiest influences — 
I might say, divine — immanent in nature, and their 
subtle powers affect him without knowledge on his 
part, and you would not suspect any great moral force 
in his character, any emergency power, any quick, 
staunch devotion to human interests suddenly put in 
jeopardy until the occasion should arise — and then 
your eyes would be opened, and your knowledge 


AJVGELS’ VISITS. 


35 

would be increased. This would be a proper place to 
introduce brilliant illustrations from history — the his- 
tory of any age or race — presenting the farmer class 
in the bright radiance of great and noble deeds in 
behalf of dearest interests. 

But then every one is familiar with the fact, and as 
I am only writing a somewhat gossipy record of the 
doings on my farm, I may well be excused from the 
more pretentious talk of the philosopher, the poet, or 
the preacher. 

Besides, you see, I am a farmer myself, and I must 
have a care lest I appear to be blowing the family 
horn. But I have not said what was in my thought 
to say when I set out to moralize on this bright 
Sunday. I mean to emphasize the fact that it is more 
a day of rest on the farm than a day of religious 
activity. The horses know the day, and the oxen, and 
the birds that mount on graceful wings. 

All these good folk relieve the day with their 
gambols, their observations, and their twitterings. 

The barn-yard is a circus and an opera combined, 
while the studious meditative mule wags his mighty 
ears back and forth, as I have seen Theodore Thomas 
weild his baton in front of his great orchestra. 

I am not opposed to churches, meetings, conventi- 
cles, and the like. I love to hear the sabbath bell with 
its living cadence, calling to higher and holier things. 
I am partial to the stately music of the church, led 


36 ANGELS’ VISITS. 

by the deep-toned, many-tongued organ, fingered by 
some human master in whom dwells the very spirit 
of harmony. 

I can keep awake during an ordinary sermon if the 
preacher speaks from his heart, and speaks truth for 
daily use instead of the stately but frozen language of 
current speculations. But, after all, the religion of 
the farm is different from that of refined society. 

There are no spasms of better purpose to covet or 
create as in your higher walks of life. Conscience 
hasn’t been on a doubtful journey during the week, and 
the powers of the mind have not been strained and 
exhausted in pursuit of questionable things, and the 
honest heart has not gone a-hankering after forbidden 
pleasures. — Nothing of the sort. 

Vexing questions concerning the future state, divine 
decrees, eternal hope, destiny of races and all that, 
have not disturbed the serenity of the honest farmer’s 
life since last Sunday, and therefore your modern 
preaching would be Greek to him, as I have no doubt 
it is to most folks, if they would own up. Yet he 
loves the holy day, and by and large, honors it with 
all his heart and might, and is sufficiently religious 
to meet the requirements of nature, and the approba- 
tion of God — as spoken, at least, in the familiar voice 
of his own conscience. 

Occasionally, too, we add to the pleasures and duties 
of our Sunday on the farm, by sacred songs sung in 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


37 

concert, led by my Miriam on the melodion, and a 
most interesting talk by our particular friend, Mr. Com- 
fort Miller, who would visit us oftener if he should 
come at our wish. 

Comfort is an old friend, — has seen the world and 
knows it ; has suffered, and is therefore qualified to 
sympathize ; is a scholar, and is therefore capable of 
instructing us, and is as true as steel, a friend in need 
without flourishes or professions, and does not claim to 
be religious to speak of. 

He might have been a lawyer, or a professor, or a 
preacher, or a newspaper man even, an almost any- 
thing out of the ordinary, — but he has just gone along 
in his cheerful, helping-hand sort of way, a kind of 
good Samaritan (only he would not thank me for 
saying so) and would, I verily believe, help the thief 
as quickly as he would the victim. 

He has old-fashioned notions — has Comfort. For 
instance, he holds that some time or other, either in 
this world or another, all wrongs will be righted, and 
all evil will give place to good. 

He says, there are no short cuts to paradise, — and 
the way winds round about a good deal for some 
folks, but one day the last straggler will pass through 
the gates, with all his wits about him, and will know 
it. 

I am sure such doctrine is very comforting, or ought 
to be, to say, old Noshucks, who sneers at his poor old 


38 ANGELS' E/S/rS. 

fields because they will not grow corn without fertilizer 
and cultivation. 

Well, Mr. Comfort Miller is our guest to-day, and 
this evening the neighbors will be sure to drop in, 
and, with Miriam to lead off, we shall have some fine 
music — and you may be sure Comfort will open his 
mouth and say something. If you care to know what 
he says, I will try to repeat it to you, but I warn you 
that I can’t do justice to anything Comfort says, — be- 
cause, you know, there’s a way of saying things that 
don’t go with the repeating by another. Besides, there 
is always a subtle, wonderful, untransferable some- 
thing that belongs to the song, that keeps on, and on, 
and on, long after the song is ended. What is it ? 

It is so with Comfort’s talks. 

But I must say no more in this chapter. 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


39 


CHAPTER VIII. 

COMFORT MILLER. 

What a beautiful evening, and how bright and ex- 
pectant every face in our plain sitting-room, as, one by 
one, the neighbors drop in to meet Comfort and 
listen to his words. 

Our hundred is small, but we know one another 
pretty well, and we are united in the opinion that 
an evening spent with Mr. Miller will be well spent 

Our old melodion is somewhat wheezy and out of 
tune, but Miriam has a knack of bringing plenty of 
sound out of it, and tuneful sound too. 

Comfort has a very mellow voice, and my Miriam 
is no small affair when it comes to singing and play- 
ing — especially when Comfort is by to lead. 

I sing a little myself, in a minor sort of way — but 
I like to keep my voice a little back, so as to hear 
the fresh rich melody of the young folks. 

Somehow my heart beats faster at the sound of 
fresh young voices attuned to harmony. It carries 
me back to early days,, in a, far away settlement, 
where I used to attend singing-school in the old log 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


40 

schoolhouse, with Miriam’s mother, who sings in 
heaven to-day. 

How like her is Miriam as she sits there at the dear 
old melodion, her sweet face, thoughtful but bright, 
and her eyes filled with the soft light of content and 
love ! 

While Miriam lives it will be nip and tuck with me 
as to going or staying — for it’s heaven in any event 
whether I go or whether I stay. 

“Shall we sing your favorite song, father.?” asked 
Miriam. 

“By all means,” I replied, “if you will,” — and this 
is the song : 

“ There seems a voice in every gale, 

A tongue in every flower. 

Which tells, O God, the wondrous tale, 

Of thy Almighty power. 

The birds that rise on quivering wing 
Proclaim their Maker’s praise, — 

And all the mingling sounds of spring 
To thee an anthem raise. 

“ Shall I be mute, great God, alone, 

Midst nature’s loud acclaim. 

Shall not my heart in answering tone 
Breathe forth thy holy Name ? 

All nature’s debt is small to mine: — 

Nature shall cease to be, — 

Thou gavest proof of love divine. 

Immortal life to me.” 

Good poetry, and good sense too, I think, but if 
you could hear Comfort Miller and Miriam sing the 
words, I don’t know what you would think. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


41 


Other songs were sung, all joining in according to 
his or her inspiration, and the sustained sound of the 
melodion absorbed all the inharmony, for you must 
know that even good farmers may be rather poor 
singers. But good sentiment has much to do in pro- 
ducing harmony — and when the theme is homely and 
touches the nature, a cracked voice becomes quite 
tuneful. 

Comfort said that he desired to give some thoughts 
about the transfiguration of Jesus, and asked Miriam 
to read the account of it in Matthew’s gospel, seven- 
teenth chapter. This she did with reverent feeling, 
and this is nearly what Cornfort said on the sub- 
ject 

Apart from the world's confusion, on a quiet hill-top, 
and communing with God and the angels. Such, my 
friends, is the picture the words read set before us. 

There are only four persons visible : they are Jesus, 
Peter, James and John — four human souls and bodies, 
but one of them feeling for the infinite hands of 
strength and love. 

Our eyes can see that which is visible and palpable 
to the senses, but we may also sense the unseen. 

We do not cast doubt upon the record, because it is 
in accordance with the natural both in the material and 
the spiritual. 

As we gaze steadfastly m thought, the scene opens 
like a picture. 


42 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


The feeler after God does not feel in vain. 

His prayer is not a mere mumbling of words, but 
is the outgoing of soul. 

There is uplifting of the spirit. 

There is nothing supernatural transpiring. 

No miracle is wrought to bring the powers down. 

There is the aspiration of the soul of Jesus, by 
which he is lifted up and out of, and beyond the con- 
ditions of evil and mortality, and when he returns to 
earth he is accompanied by loved and trusted ones 
who continue their communion and conversation 
with him as though loth to part. 

A great teacher defines prayer as — “Not a solilo- 
quy of the man, not a physiological function, not 
an address to a deceased man ; but a sally into the 
infinite spiritual world, whence we bring back light 
and truth. 

How true, for see : — while we look with penetra- 
tion, the light appears — the halo of divine presence 
shrouding the invisible but bearing them down. 

The white radiance falls upon the earnest face of 
the Christ, and the brightness of the sun pales before 
it, and his very garments outshine the noon-day 
splendor. 

We cannot too seriously consider, nor too carefully 
study, the attitude and condition of Jesus. 

He stands before us in the gateway of the worlds 
and reveals to us the sure thoroughfare. 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


43 

We gaze with undefinable rapture upon the picture, 
but we may assuredly take the lesson of privilege 
and opportunity to ourselves. 

The scene is not without precedent, for it suggests 
a similar event in which Moses, the law-giver, acted 
a prominent part — as on a mountain apart he raised 
his appealing arms toward heaven while the battle 
raged doubtfully beneath. His hands grew tired, and 
Aaron and Hur supported them until the going down 
of the Sun — and Israel prevailed. 

The lesson is in the successful invoking of invisible 
powers in human extremity, and the swift response. 

To come into such conditions is to put ourselves 
in the way of helpfulness for all mankind, and our 
transfiguration becomes the occasion of joyful recog- 
nitions and manifestations. 

The beautiful wmrds of John Keble fittingly finish 
my lesson : 

The course of prayer who knows ? 

It springs in silence where it will, 

Springs out of sight, and flows 
At first a lonely rill. 

But streams shall meet it by and by 
From thousand sympathetic hearts, 

Together swelling high 

Their chant of many parts. 

Unheard by all but angel ears 
The good Cornelius knelt alone, 

Nor dreamed his prayers and tears 
Would help a world undone. 


44 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


And Jesus was transfigured before them. 

Such is the record which we believe. 

Human eyes on this side, angels on the other, 
watched him as he melted, so to speak, into the 
divine, and became one in celestial company. 

We need not take up time to comment on the mere 
incidents of this event, the wonder and awe of those 
human watchers whose eyes were too heavy and 
holden of earth conditions to penetrate the light and 
see the forms of celestial visitors as they communed 
with the transfigured One. 

Some words they heard as they devoutly listened. 
Forms also they recognized — Moses and Elijah talk- 
ing with Jesus. 

Beyond these incidents they knew nothing, heard 
nothing. 

Their glory and share must not be underrated, 
however, for they were witnesses to the great fact of 
the opening of heaven to human approach. 

Some questions and affirmations remain for us to 
consider. 

Some one will voice the doubt and boldly ask — 
Did it occur ? 

Did heaven open around that mountain of prayer ? 

Was Jesus glorified with the divine radiance ? 

Did he hold converse with spirit friends, and with 
Moses and with Elijah — two great prophets and re- 
formers whose works yet remained, and whose 


AJVGELSr VISITS. 


45 

words yet uttered themselves throughout the world ? 

Did voices of love and sympathy blend with the 
voice of God in devotion to him, and m needful, 
timely instruction of his courageous soul as he passed 
over the threshold of his great conflict and mission ? 

These are questions that voice themselves often, 
and from many sources. 

Some ask them timidly, hopefully, with a sob of 
love in the heart of doubt. 

Some ask them flippantly, with a hard, unfeeling, 
metallic ring of disputation and denial. 

We repeat them in the quiet, assured tones of un- 
doubt and confidence, upspringing from a deep sense 
of triumphant realization, and a yearning desire that 
the blessed assurance of truth may grow into the 
consciousness of every human soul. 

What, then, transpired.? 

This : A consecrated and aspiring soul sought and 
found audience with God ; sought and found sympa- 
thetic companions in the invisible world ; sought and 
found counsel, strength, encouragement, sympathy 
and instruction from sources and persons hidden to 
the mortal and the sinful, in the life of the spirit and 
its greater world. 

The soul of Jesus lifted itself by its aspirations 
along natural lines of outgoing, into the spiritual, 
into its fatherland of light, of truth, of holy relation- 
ships. 


46 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


It passed, by natural right, in sublime consecration, 
beyond the boundary line of the material “whose 
materiality is God, into the spiritual whose spiritual- 
ity is God/' 

He was transfigured before them. 

He passed the line while they (his human com- 
panions) watched. 

His soul grew in stature to the altitude of divine 
correspondence, while they gazed in drowsy wonder. 

Natural Philosophy declares that “God is imma- 
nent in Nature ; ” Spiritual Philosophy declares with 
equal emphasis that God is immanent in Man. 

Behold his transfiguration ! 

Under this spell we come to an agreement, and 
the voices blend in according testimony. 

Our physical powers and senses trace and find 
what we call God in the earth and in the sky ; we 
realize his presence in the harmony of worlds ; in 
the beauty and fragrance of the flower; in the struc- 
ture of the fragile and the strong. 

He is immanent, omnipresent, omniactive. 

His breath pervades all, and is the life of all. True, 
O King! 

But let us not deny the same law and facts to the 
spiritual and to the spirit entity. 

Why should the sensing of God in the spiritual, 
and the cognizance of all the facts of spirit life and 
spirit communion, be thought unnatural and supersti- 


AJVGELSr VISITS. 


47 

tious more than the sensing of the fragrance of the 
flower whose cause and whose method are quite as 
hidden from our knowledge ? 

Listen to this testimony — it proceeds from one of 
the most gifted and enlightened minds of this 
time. 

“ The world is not nearer to our bodies than God 
to the soul. 

“In him we live and move and have our being. As 
we have bodily senses to lay hold on matter and 
supply bodily wants, through which we obtain nat- 
urally all needed things : so we have spiritual facul- 
ties to lay hold on God, and supply spiritual wants : 
through them we obtain all needed spiritual things. 
As we observe the condition of the body, we have na- 
ture on our side ; as we observe the Law of the Soul, 
we have God on our side. He imparts truth to all 
men who observe these conditions. We have direct 
access to him, through reason, conscience, and the 
religious faculty, just as we have access to nature, 
through the eye, the ear, or the hand. Through these 
channels, and by means of a law, certain, regular, 
and universal as gravitation, God inspires men, makes 
revelation of truth, for is not truth as much a phe- 
nomenon of God as motion of matter ? 

“Therefore if God be omnipresent and omniactive, 
this inspiration is no miracle, but a regular mode of 
Gods action on conscious spirit, as gravitation on un- 


48 ANGELS' VISITS. 

conscious matter. It is not a rare condescension of 
God, but a universal uplifting of man. 

“ To obtain a knowledge of duty, a man is not sent 
away, outside of himself, to ancient documents, for 
the only rule of faith and practice : the word is nigh 
him, even in his heart, and by this word he is to try 
all documents whatsoever. 

“Inspiration, like God’s omnipresence, is not limited 
to a few writers claimed by the Jews, Christians, or 
Mahometans, but is coextensive with the race. As 
God fills all space, so all spirit : as he influences and 
constrains unconscious and necessitated matter, so he 
inspires and helps free and conscious man.” 

And so, we see the Christ, obeying the law of his 
spiritual nature, invoking, evoking, reaching out 
to, and constraining the infinite powers. 

No wonder he was transfigured before them. 

No wonder, and no marvel, that his countenance 
shone with the reflection of an unearthly glory. 
No marvel that at that moment, in that place, while 
the light of God played about the mountain’s sum- 
mit, eager voices from the unseen talked with him, 
Biicouraged him, and cheered him to his task. These 
voices were audible to the drowsy disciples and filled 
them with awe. What if they had heard the talk of 
God to his soul ! 

My second thought is, that in this scene and in 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


49 

the method of it we have unfolded to us the law 
and the method of our true life. 

It is the natural in the spiritual world. The law is 
that, as with the bodily senses we appreciate and en- 
joy the material world and all the relations of our phys- 
ical life, so, by the exercise of our spiritual faculties, 
in a natural way, we have and may have access to 
God and the things of God — to all spiritual truth and 
and to all spiritual fellowships. 

The soul must grow, must be transfigured — perpet- 
ually rising — rising under the inspiration of God’s 
presence, into the perfect and the best and the perma- 
nent of all goodness and beauty and truth. 

The method is simple. 

It is simple inspiration. 

I say simple inspiration because it is natural, uni- 
versal. 

It is the operation of truth within the soul leading 
it from experience to experience, from fact to fact, 
from discovery to discovery, from seed to flower and 
fruit, in the increasing life and in the widening world. 
Movement toward the highest and the best is the sure 
sign of this inspiration, and the being, and the realiza- 
tion of the finest and best are the facts of consciousness. 
A soul thus moving is in frequent transfiguration. 

Each new revelation transfigures. Each new height 
gained in soul growth is but the horning of life 

into its more perfect state, and a transfiguration of its 

4 


A JV GELS’ VISITS. 


50 

elements into all the conditions and privileges it con- 
tains. 

How else did Enoch walk with God .? The walk was 
but the actual assimilation of his moral and spiritual 
nature into the perfect image and likeness of the God 
pattern. 

My friends, we have reached a point along this 
way of life, where we may well pause and feed upon 
the word of this truth. 

One question asks itself : How shall I realize .? 

What shall I do to reach the height of conscious 
transfiguration ? 

The lesson here is simple too. 

Perhaps many overlook it because of its simplicity. 

Like Naaman the Syrian, white with leprosy, we 
expect some great and mysterious thing to be done for 
our healing. We essay to toil and pray and sacrifice, 
and, in our confusion and impatience, we expect some 
miraculous intervention on our behalf. 

We do all things except — wait. 

In spiritual things we are most unspiritual. 

We want wings, but are unwilling to submit to 
the conditions of their growth. We wish to know 
great truth and realize the marvellous life of the free- 
dom to which it graduates us, but we do not patiently 
learn the primary lessons. 

Growth is not accretion, and growth is not work. 

Growth is natural advance out of the ground in 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


51 

which we are rooted. Our relations are natural, and 
our growth must be also. 

Dr. Drummond truly says: “If the amount of 
energy lost in trying to grow were spent in fulfilling 
rather the conditions of growth, we should have many 
more cubits to our stature. ” 

The answer, therefore, to the anxious question of the 
thoughtful — “How shall I realize.?’’ is this : Abide 
in the conditions of growth. Stand still with God. 

The great Teacher emphasizes this truth when he 
says — ‘ ‘ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch 
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, 
so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. ” 

Nothing can be simpler, and nothing is more as- 
suring. 

On this ground, then, let us stand, putting up our 
prayers to God, opening out towards him in all re- 
sponsive ways, and by the very laws of our spiritual 
being, we shall grow up towards him, our living cause 
in all things. 

Our fellowship with Christ will be as real and as 
certain as was his with Moses and Elijah, for we 
will often draw him and them, and others, to our 
side, by these, the very conditions of our being, in 
some valley or on some Mount of Transfiguration. 

“ We all must patient stand. 

Like statues on appointed pedestals : 

Yet, we may choose — since choice is given— to shun 
Servile contentment or ignoble fears.” 


52 


AJVGELS^ VISITS, 


In the expression of our altitude : 

“ And with far-straining eyes, and hands upcast, 

And feet half raised, declare our painful state, 

Yearning for wings to reach the fields of truth. 

Mourning for wisdom, panting to be free.*’ 

As Comfort ceased speaking, there went up from 
all our hearts an earnest aspiration, and I must 
say that I felt a new breath in the atmosphere. 

Presently Miriam’s gentle fingers moved over rhe 
keys of the melodeon, and I think I never felt the 
divine pathos of her voice as when she sang alone 
these words — 

“ Give me the wings of faith to rise 
Within the veil and see, 

The Saints above how great their joys, 

How bright their glories be.” 


“ Many are the friends who are waiting to-day — 
Waiting in the better land, 

Many are the loved ones calling us away — 

To join the heavenly band. 

Calling us away ; calling us away ; 

Calling to the better land.” 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


53 


CHAPTER IX. 

PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING, 

Look now, beloved, on this web ol broidered beauty round. 

And feel it ne’ei was woven thus so fair but to confound, 

Each leafy plant thou seest declares the never-changing laws, 

And every flower, loud and more loud, proclaims the Eternal cause. 

Goethe. 

We are now sowing beets for a first crop. The 
land is prepared as for an onion bed, and the furrows 
are made and seed dropped by the Planet, Jr, seed- 
sower — the drills being i8 inches apart.” 

The seed-sower is a great improvement over the 
old back-aching method, and when the work is. done 
the track of the firming wheel is plainly seen, the 
seed being covered almost an inch and well packed. 
Light soils do w ell for quick growth, that is, when well 
fertilized ; but for a main crop to come into market 
from March to May, select your best land, a clay 
subsoil with fine loam on top. 

Transplanted beets do well on my farm, especially 
in such land, and when we come to thin out, there 
will be no waste of plants. The transplanted beets 
will take a little longer to mature, but as the best 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


54 

market is in May, you will be in season if you do 
your transplanting during the first spring throbbings 
with us — any time in January — and through Feb- 
ruary. 

We are now enjoying the holiday season — and 
transplanting cabbage with all our force. The trans- 
planting machine has not yet reached us, but I have 
a picture of one, and when the boys grow weary I 
amuse them by exhibiting the picture, with a sort of 
promise that another season we will try it, and turn 
their most busy, trying work into a jolly picnic. 

Human fingers properly handled, however, are the 
perfect transplanters, and it is astonishing how rapidly 
one can put in plants, especially if they are well 
dipped and the ground is as it should be. As a pre- 
ventive of many things that might occur, as well as a 
send-off to the plants, we dip their roots into a solu- 
tion .of cow-dung, just before they are put in 
place. 

If you have never done so, try it. It will reward 
you manifold in every way. 

The great enemy here to the cabbage is the cut- 
worm, and few gardeners have been able to fight him 
successfully. We did not lose one per cent, no, not a 
quarter of one per cent of plants by this marauder, 
and I attribute our escape to the precaution I have 
named. It may be just a fancy of mine, but the fact 
of escape remains, and the same cannot be said of 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


55 

some of our neighbors who were kept busy of morn- 
ings destroying the ravaging worm and replacing the 
plants. 

The cut-worm, ugly as he is, is a very delicate fel- 
low, has a keen scent, is dainty in his tastes, and does 
not like to loiter near the cow-dung solution. 

The pestiferous fly is sometimes more destructive 

a little innocent baby butterfly kind of wanderer— and 
as they do their work very slyly, close watching is in 
order. A weak solution of saltpetre, sprinkled over 
the plants of an evening, once or twice, with a small 
whisk brush, is a good preventive and costs little. 
Prevention is better than attempts to cure. Later on, 
if you see signs of the enemy in any form, upon the 
growing plants, a good solution of coal-tar water 
applied in the same way will pay for the trouble. By 
attending to these little chores one can feel pretty 
comfortable as he watches and works among these 
tender, green, fast-growing, bountiful ministers of 
Providence, making haste to become meat for the 
Master’s use. Some folks, I have been told, look 
with disdain upon the simple, plebeian business of 
growing cabbages, beets, onions, potatoes, cauli- 
flowers, and the like, but they must be a dull, hard- 
headed, unsympathetic kind of people, whose knowl- 
edge and love of Nature are derived from picture 
galleries, or views from the windows of a railway 
train as it dashes over fertile plains, or glimpses of 


56 ANGELS' VISITS. 

festooned banks like those of our great St. John’s 
River, from the deck of a puffing steamboat. 

How different to enter a well-tilled field, with its 
long rows of beautiful, succulent plants, expending 
their bountiful lives for our delight and appetite ; or 
with its tall forests of maize snapping, singing, and 
waving their welcome ; or with the statelier and 
richer sugar cane with its purple, red, and gold stripes, 
lines of beauty on the surface, indicative and sugges- 
tive of the hidden streams and cells of untold wealth 
within. 

The music of a growing cornfield, or a cane patch 
at four o’clock in the afternoon, is a fitting serenade 
of the declining day, which the mock-birds’ trill 
ushered in at five o’clock in the morning. Every true 
farmer realizes, even if he cannot express, the sweet 
amenities and divinely social confidences which Nat- 
ure ordains, and he is a regular Noshucks who does 
not recognize and maintain the utmost intimacies and 
relations with all her forms of life, as he walks through 
her stately aisles, or bends to caress the fragile plant, 
or inhale the delicate perfumes of the variegated 
field, to say nothing of the whispering voices that 
greet his listening ear — voices of angels out for a 
holiday. 

Madam, in your world, what I am describing as a 
sweet, delicious commerce between the good farmer 
and his fields, is suggested by the French phrase — 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


57 

Efitenie Cor diale , — a reciprocity of good fellowship. 

You have felt all this yourself, Madam, while tend- 
ing the trailing vines in your conservatory, or while 
pressing your lips to the cool, fragrant rose, or while 
gazing with inexpressible delight upon a cluster of 
fuchias, whose rainbow tints bespeak for you, in time 
to come, the fruition of your fondest hopes. 

You tell your real secrets to the sympathetic flowers, 
and they, in turn, soothe, mollify, or encourage you, 
beyond the power of mere words. 

And, you, my dear child, confined to your lonely 
garret, could tell a wondrous sweet story, which 
that single, blooming rose geranium, turned just now 
towards the sunlight through the window pane, 
suggests. What confidences you have had together ! 
How tenderly has it ministered to your troubled 
life, easing your pains, exhaling its aroma of hope 
and comfort upon you, in answer to your little wail 
of loneliness and sorrow ! It tells you of everything 
that is sweeter and better than you know, and, some- 
how, brightens that part of you which the sunshine 
of human favor has never penetrated. 

How I wish you could come away to my farm and 
take a walk with me through the teeming forests, 
vocal with melody, or down by the lake, yonder, 
where palms lift their proud heads, and where the 
ferns and wild violets nestle so cosily together in shel- 
tered nooks, fringing the banks of the lake, whose 


58 ANGELS' VISITS. 

waters, clear and limpid, are splashed about by thou- 
sands of roysterous fins. 

Shut your weary eyes, child, while I fling into your 
lap jessamine and honeysuckle, arbutus and delicate 
ferns, a white lotus or two from the pond down in 
the meadow, and a bunch of blue violets from Palm 
Island. 

There ! let them prophecy to you for the. rest of the 
day — 

Flowers, sweet flowers, 

Sweet, Wildwood flowers, 

I gathered them all for you. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


59 


CHAPTER X. 

THE HOME CIRCLE. 

Time is a steady invader, and death is an incident 
of time. 

Our circle around the evening lamp is not visibly 
as large as it used to be. This is how it is : Miriam’s 
mother, has not withdrawn the rich presence of her 
devoted life— although her body lies yonder beneath 
the violets and pansies and forget-me-nots bordered 
by deftly arranged shells from the ocean. Her chair 
is empty, but the home is full of her presence. 

Miriam grows into her dear likeness daily, and the 
tones of her voice have the same tender cadence that 
my ears never tire of holding. 

Tom, our one boy, is making a good name for him- 
self in a distant State, but every week comes a letter, 
full of devotion and duty, with a fond brother’s 
kisses for Miriam. 

The boys of the farm are ambitious, and who can 
blame them ? 

Tom was a good lad on the farm, but after grad- 
uating from college, he felt that the farm was a pent- 


6o 


A JVC ELS'' VISITS. 


up Utica for him — and a lawyer he would be. Well, 
my heart rebelled a little, but Miriam stood up for 
Tom, and pleaded so eloquently with her sweet words 
and great swimming eyes that I took on courage to 
assent to the proposition that Tom should be a 
lawyer — wdth the distinct proviso that he would win 
his way to that place in the profession where a distin- 
quished counsellor once said — '' there is room.’' 

It is no little satisfaction to me, as I note the 
splendid and proportionate growth of my crops, to 
know that Tom is growing too, and that he bids fair 
to find the coveted place. 

I am glaa tor Miriam’s sake, yes, and tor her sake 
too who, with a mother s devotion, still, although in 
spirit, watches over us all. 

We agree, Miriam and I, that we will not consider 
that there are any vacancies in our circle, — and I 
assure you that we take great comfort out of that 
compact. 

The mother's seat is there — and Tom's seat is 
there, — and there they surely are, in thought, in 
sympathy, and in spirit. 

But just now our circle is greatly enlarged by flesh 
and blood people, — friends of ours who will brighten 
our lives for some time at the farm. 

First of all, Comfort Miller is with us for a month’s 
recreation, and he has brought with him his friend 
and fellow student Doctor Flavius Graeme — a chemist 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


6l 

of repute, who is in Florida primarily to investigate 
the phosphate deposits in the interests of a foreign 
company of capitalists. He is from London town — 
and yet he is as plain and unostentatious as if he had 
been a simple farmer all his life. 

Comfort calls him a “great bear” to his face, but 
Miriam thinks him more of a lion than a bear ; but 
as he is, a long-time friend of Comforts, we agree 
that he must possess all possible good qualities, and, 
certainly, thus far, he has given us every reason to 
think so. 

We have also with us, for a week only, the Rev. 
Caleb Soyer, our minister, who is an earnest and 
devoted missionary, like his Lord and Master, among 
the common people, and who often favors us with his 
genial presence, sometimes for a few hours only, but 
always to our great delight and edification. 

This earnest, good man fears that some of us, in 
matters spiritual, stand in slippery places, seeing that 
we are not in harmony with that particular creed and 
system of theological doctrine which he believes, 
advocates, and which is popularly accepted. 

Brother Caleb, I must say, discharges his duty and 
conscience faithfully, never ceasing to warn, expostu- 
late. and exhort with all earnestness, sincerity, and 
anxious concern. 

He is powerful in prayer and exhortation, and is 
happy only when sinners tremble beneath the Word. 


62 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


Everybody respects and reveres him — while to us 
he is always a benediction. Lastly, I must present to 
you my Miriam’s particular friend, Mary Van Elt, 
whose beautiful presence always brings sunshine. 

1 know it is customary in books to give minute 
and sometimes fulsome descriptions of persons and 
characters introduced, and it often appears that the 
finest strokes of genius are found in the happy pres- 
entation of the hero or heroine. But as I lack the 
gifts and graces of fashionable authorship, you must 
even be content to become acquainted with the good 
people I have named by the unfolding of my nar- 
rative, in which their actions and words will have 
place rather than by any particular description of the 
charms of their persons or the salient features of their 
characters. Yet, 1 may be pardoned if I add a few 
words about Mary Van Elt, — for beyond question 
she is remarkable both for personal beauty and char- 
acter, and for very rare gifts of intellect and spirit. 
She is a pronounced spiritualist, and bears about with 
her an atmosphere of strange warmth and captivating 
pathos. 1 suppose she would be recognized as a 
“Medium’' in spiritualistic circles, and yet I am sure 
that she does not consider herself as possessing extra- 
ordinary gifts and powers. 

Among friends she is simplicity and confidence 
personified, and her sweet loving ways, so gentle and 
unostentatious, so helpful and sympathetic, added to 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 63 

a most interesting and beautiful personality imbued 
with a genuine religious spiritual fervor make her the 
object of almost worship. 

Her manners are quiet, her voic'e tender, pathetic and 
musical, her face, ruddy and bright with winsome 
illumination, and, when “under control,” speaking 
under the guidance of unquestionable inspiration, her 
eyes flash and glow with a light and fire most won- 
derful and attractive. The strong ties of love which 
unite this gifted child of the Spirit with my Miriam, 
who is the angel of my home, as you may guess, 
brings her also close to me, and, as we have known 
and loved her for years, my words of confidence may 
be taken at their full value. For the rest, let me say 
that Mary is an orphan, left by her devoted parents in 
comfortable worldly circumstances, and lives in ele- 
gance amid all refining influences, with a widowed 
aunt in a distant city and State. 

When at home, her parlors are frequently the scene 
of delightful conferences, and most distinguished 
scholars, jurists, divines, poets, and philosophers 
may be found side by side in interesting discussion 
with the veteran spiritualists of the world,— while the 
marvelous grace and spiritual charms of the fair hos- 
tess shed radiance upon all. 

In this way we know Mary Van Elt, — but Brother 
Caleb does not know her so, and is deeply distressed 
over what he conceives to be her undone condition, 


64 ANGELS^ VISITS. 

for that she is possessed of at least one devil he has 
no doubt — from his intensely religious point of view, 
albeit he admits that the “ evil spirit of divination ” 
is harmless enough to all appearance. 

It is Brother Caleb’s purpose, good, dear man, to leave 
nothing undone by way of prayer and exhortation to 
bring this poor lost sheep within the fold, and save 
her from the delusions with which she is afflicted. 

Let him be forgiven in advance. 

“ A spiritualist ! ” he exclaimed to me in his deepest 
distress — “ and a medium at that ! ” 

‘ ‘ W ell, ” I mildly replied, ‘ ‘ Brother Soy er, you should 
not condemn hastily and without knowledge. You 
have never been brought in contact with spiritualists, 
and you are filled with the prejudice of your profes- 
sion — but you have a good heart and loving, and 
like the Master whom you serve you will not condemn 
before a hearing. 

“We have known Mary for long years, and know her 
to be as good as she is beautiful, and, while we do 
not pretend to fathom the mystery of her marvellous 
gifts, we know that they are never used for gain or for 
evil, but always to comfort the afflicted and strengthen 
the weak.” 

“ You astonish me Brother Golden” (Caleb always 
calls me by my first name when he is excited), “ when 
you attempt, a man of your sense and learning and 
religious training, — a good farmer too, and with a 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 65 

daughter like Miriam, I say, you strike me dumb 
with amazement when you attempt to hide the fact 
that all such people are under the evil spell — children 
of Satan, — heirs of perdition, being used by the arch 
enemy to deceive and destroy ! " 

“ Don’t attempt to answer me,” he continued, “ by 
saying that Miss Van Elt is the child of Inspiration, 
that she sees and hears what mortals can only dream 
of — the angels of God and the spirits of the departed ! 
The days of miracles are past, and the age of the 
prophets, seers, and prophetesses is the dim nimbus 
of history two thousand years old. The word of God 
IS not amendable, and he or she who claims to speak 
by inspiration to-day speaks by the inspiration of 
the devil ! ” 

1 do not know how long Brother Caleb would have 
continued in his intense way, under the paroxysm of re- 
ligious zeal and sincerity, but Miriam’s sudden appear- 
ance caused an abrupt finish for that time. She must 
have divined the nature of our conversation, for, m her 
irresistible way, she approached Brother Caleb, and 
putting her hands on his shoulders, looking intently 
and lovingly into his honest face the while, said — 
“Dear Uncle Caleb, ”(our children in the South gen- 
erally address our ministers in this familiar and en- 
dearing manner), “ you must not worry about sweet 
Mary Van Elt because she is a spiritualist and a me- 
dium. Indeed, Uncle Caleb she is an angel of beauty, 

5 


66 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


love, and truth, and oh ! won’t you try and think of 
her as my dearest friend, and one whose heart is all 
love toward everybody ! ” 

‘ ‘ Child, child, ” cried Brother Caleb, raising his hands, 
“she is indeed, as you say, an angel of beauty, but 
alas ! how fast bound in the chains of error and dark- 
ness ! 

“She must be saved. 

“The brand must be plucked from the burning, and 
I call on you, dear child, to unite with me m prayer 
for this poor deluded soul, as well as for all others, 
that God, in his mercy, may break the power of 
Satan ! ” ^ 

I never saw Brother Caleb so wrought up as at this 
moment, and that he was sincere there could be no 
doubt, for the great tears rolled down his cheeks. I 
was glad in my heart to see Miriam throw her arms 
around the good man’s neck, and with her innocent 
lips stop the tears in their great flow, and then run 
off to the kitchen to hide her own. 

‘ ‘ Talk about an angel. Brother Golden, — I say your 
Miriam there is a long way ahead of any 1 know of 
this side the blessed Kingdom, God bless her ! ” 

With all a proud father’s heart I responded — “amen,” 
and then we lighted our corn cobs and smoked in 
silence. 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


67 


CHAPTER XL 

REVEREND CALEB SOYER. 

“ The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which 
the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted.” 

Jane Eyre. 

We smoked in silence, Brother Caleb Soyer and I, 
each looking into vacancy, and each intent upon track- 
ing his own way through it to the perfect rest and the 
perfect state. It was drawing toward the heel of the 
day, and I knew that Miriam was anxiously expect- 
ing Dr. Graeme, Comfort, and Mary Van Elt, home 
from a fishing excursion — with fish for supper. 

Presently cheerful voices were heard down the 
garden reach — and soon Dr. Graeme approached, in 
advance of Mary and Comfort, bearing a string of fine 
lake bass — the result of the day’s sport. 

“Ah! Miss Miriam,” shouted the Doctor, “your 
lakes are divine providences, and the fish they breed 
are food for angels. ” 

Each angler had caught a fish, but Mary could 
not land hers in the boat on account of its size and 
weight, and when the gentlemen undertook to haul 
it in the hook snapped and the fish escaped. 

“I was glad to fail,” said Mary, “for it hurt me 


68 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


as much as it did the poor fish to hook it ; besides, 
the gentlemen had already taken enough for our 
supper.” 

The two fishes weighed, when dressed, eleven 
pounds between them. 

Brother Caleb and I concluded to stroll to the plan- 
tation where the men were busy hoeing cabbage, and, 
having learned from Miriam that we had a full hour 
to wander before supper, away we went. 

How delightful it is to walk and talk with one in 
whom you have implicit confidence, and feel that no 
restraint exists in either toward the other ! Brother 
Caleb and I are well mated in that respect. I know 
him to be thoroughly trustworthy and sincere, a man 
of purest motive, and bent on doing only good. Yet 
I know that he is narrow, intensely orthodox as one 
may say, and one who would willingly die for his 
conviction. Not learned, not a dialectician nor a 
theologian of the schools, but a simple, ardent, de- 
vout, self-sacrificing, cross-bearing, follower of Jesus 
as he understands Him. He has an intense spirit, 
and, when excited, commands words that burn 
and thoughts that breathe. As a preacher he does 
not excel, having no gift of exposition, but as an 
exhorter he has few equals, and his appeals to sin- 
ners are thunderbolts of power. 

He would make a grand redeemer if a readiness to 
die for mankind were the prime requisite. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 69 

He is austere in habit, methodical in all ways, a 
believer in God, in a personal devil, in Christ, in eter- 
nal damnation for the wicked, eternal happiness for 
the faithful in Christ, and knows no method of human 
deliverance except the old-fashioned one of “repen- 
tance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ/’ 
He firmly believes that all men fell dead away in 
Adam, and are totally depraved and lost beyond hope, 
until faith in Christ quickens the soul to new life in 
repentance. 

To save man from eternal hell is the crowning- and 
masterful motive of his life, and he devotes him- 
self in his earnest way to this work with a pure con- 
science, out of sheer love and good-will toward his 
fellow-creatures. 

There are preachers and preachers, but Caleb Soyer 
is one of the preachers, one who preaches what he 
believes and believes what he preaches, and is, to 
all who know him, the “living epistle,” of which 
you have heard, easily read, and when read appreciated 
and respected, even though you may be very far from 
accepting his teachings for the truth and the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth. 

Is he sensational .? Y es. 

Imaginative "i Yes. 

Puritanic.? Yes. 

Denunciatory.? Yes. 

But also with a heart as tender as your own mothers 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


70 

and a will like his God’s — that’s Caleb. If he had 
chanced to have been with Jesus when he took pity- 
on the poor woman who was taken in adultery, and 
was about to be stoned by the more guilty mob, 
I think Caleb would have taken her home and adopted 
her into his family, as an act of faith and good will — 
and as a protest to the world. The Master said — 
‘ ' Neither do I condemn thee, go in peace, and sin 
no more; ” but Caleb would have said, “ The wicked 
cowards have slunk away at the just rebuke ; but 
I don’t trust them any more for that, and they’ll stone 
you to death as soon as my back is turned, so come 
along home with me, child, come.” 

That’s Caleb Soyer, Methodist exhorter, a paradox- 
ical fellow, honest, limited, bold, impulsive, great- 
hearted, a Daniel in judgment, and a Jeremiah in lamen- 
tations ; a John Baptist, going before and proclaiming 
the coming Christ, to exalt his friends and punish his 
enemies — yet ready at any moment to die for them 
first. And yet Caleb Soyer believes that sweet, gentle 
gracious, innocent, inspired Mary Van Elt is pos- 
sessed of the devil, and that all mediums, so called, 
and spiritualists, as we know them, are under the 
dominion of the powers of darkness, held in slavish 
chains of Satan — captive at his will. 

That’s Caleb Soyer as we saunter along down the 
reach to the plantation, after his honest tears of pity 


A JVC ELS’ VISITS. 7 1 

for poor, innocent Mary were kissed from his face 
by the vicarious lips of my Miriam. 

Pausing at the great gate at the end of the “reach,'" 
Caleb turned toward me abruptly and said : 

“ Brother Golden, do you observe anything peculiar 
about my face — a sort of a halo "" 

“ No, Brother Caleb, I can't say that your face is dif- 
ferent from ordinary ; it's a good honest face anyway.*' 
“I never was proud of it before," was the good 
man's quiet reply. 

At that moment we heard Miriam's conch-shell 
horn calling to supper. 


ANGELS'' VISITS 


72 


CHAPTER XIL 

ALABASTER BOXES. 

What lies beyond the common appetite and the common power 
of appropriation we should keep within ourselves, and it will diffuse 
over our actions a lustre like a mild radiance of a hidden sun. 

Goethe. 

It is a most refreshing interruption of our rather 
monotonous way at the farm to have a house full of 
pleasant people. 

The days glide swiftly and peacefully away, and 
the evenings bring memories and revelations that 
must tell favorably on the future of us all 

When we are quite alone — Miriam and I, we do 
not grow weary of each other, by no means, for 
we have a thousand things in common, and although 
being her father, and therefore by a natural law the 
object of a filial reverence, yet have we pursued 
our reading and studies together so long, that our 
companionship is free from that constraint which so 
often exists between parent and child. I tell all my 
thoughts and speculations to Miriam, — and when 
the latest book finds its way to our table, we pro- 
ceed to go through it of evenings with the utmost 


AJVGELS^ VISITS, 


73 

zest and freedom — reading and entertaining, turn and 
turn about. 

Mary Van Elt’s influence upon Miriam is entirely 
pleasing to me, and I can but notice that they to- 
gether live in a very pure, spiritual atmosphere. 

Mary’s peculiar gifts are never paraded, and never 
spoken of outside the charmed circle of devoted 
friends, but on her visits to the farm, which occur 
annually, there is no restraint, no reluctance to 
talk and act, no fear of encroaching upon dangerous 
ground, or wounding tender scruples, for Miriam and 
I are only too delighted to be brought with dear 
Mary into closer affiliation with the unseen and 
the occult. 

There is something irresistibly attractive in the 
thought of hearing dear familiar voices of departed 
ones, seeing their faces peering in upon us from their 
happy homes, and receiving assurance and token of 
their abiding natural interest in us as we stumble along 
here in the dark. 

Why it should not all be true, has never occurred to 
me seriously to ask, because, while not much of a 
believer m marvels, I have a sort of settlement feel- 
ing deep down, that anything necessary is possible, 
and if possible — may and ought to be. 

Immortality is necessary, at least it seems so to me, 
and to Miriam, and we have come to consider it as an 
established unchallengable fact, and so it is easily 


ANGELS' V/SITS. 


74 

natural for us to accept anything that is kindly, sin- 
cerely, and rationally offered confirmatory of our own 
convictions and belief. I was reading to Miriam and 
Mary the other evening from a conversation of Goethe 
with Eckerman, something that greatly quickened 
our thoughts. It is about like this ; — “ Man is right- 
fully a believer in immortality; it is agreeable to, and 
harmonious with, his nature, and instincts in this 
department are strengthened and confined by relig- 
ious (spiritual) assurances. My belief,” says Goethe, 

in the immortality of the soul springs from the idea of 
activity, for when I persevere to the end in a course 
of restless activity, I have a sort of guarantee from 
Nature that, when the present form of my existence 
proves itself inadequate for the energizing of my 
spirit, she will provide another form more appro- 
priate.” 

Such a view is worthy of a great mind, and it sug- 
gests an explanation of the incident of death that is 
both consoling and inspiring. 

It will be simply putting off the old, and taking on 
or evolving forth the new form or expression of con- 
tinued existence without impairment of a single 
essential element or faculty, and the enlargement of 
many. 

After supper, we shortly adjourned to the parlor, and 
the evening was most delightfully passed in a con- 
versation that none of us will soon forget. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


75 


Brother Caleb, being a minister, and having but a 
few evenings to stay with us, was given the post of 
honor, and well did he fill it. 

Without abruptness he turned the conversation into 
spiritual channels, and soon had us all engaged in 
friendly expressions of hopes, doubts, fears, and long- 
ings, until it seemed like an old-fashioned Methodist 
class meeting — the faithful teacher probing each life 
and conscience to the quick. 

Doctor Graeme held aloof for quite awhile, but 
Comfort Miller was in his element, while Mary Van 
Elt’s countenance shone with a light that was beautiful 
to see. 

What we think of Christ, Brother Caleb went on 
to say, “is important every way, and will elevate or 
degrade our life.” 

“ Do you mean. Uncle Caleb,” asked Miriam, “ that 
our estimate and view of his character, as related to 
us, will lift us up or weigh us down, according as it 
shall be appreciative or limited 

“ I mean more than that, child ; I mean that we 
must accept him as the only mediator — the only 
Saviour, through whose atoning blood and abundant 
merits, we sinners can find peace to our souls, and 
immortality. For there is no other name given under 
heaven and among men whereby we may be saved. 
In him alone we have redemption, and forgiveness 
of sins. 


76 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


“To repudiate him, to substitute others for him. 
even though they be angels, is simply to deny him 
and court the wrath of God. 

“Bear with me, my friends, if I bring home to you 
this great matter. It is on my heart to speak freely 
and plainly to you. 

“Some of you do, I fear, seek mediation elsewhere 
than at his cross, and delude yourselves with visions 
and dreams, which, while seemingly innocent, are 
keeping you from a true acceptance of Christ and his 
salvation. The tendency is to deny him, to crucify 
him afresh and put him to open shame, to refuse his 
love and reject his spirit, thereby exposing your pre- 
cious souls to the greater damnation.” 

At this point. Brother Caleb having paused. Comfort 
Miller, who had been intently watching the face of 
Mary Van Elt, all aglow as it appeared with strange 
brightness, expressed great sympathy with the Christ- 
mis.sion, and suggested that the true view of Christ 
was not to be had from the commonly accepted 
standpoint. 

He thought that the Christ-spirit, and the Christ- 
power, and the Christ-mission to humanity, are more 
correctly declared, and more consistently advocated 
by true spiritualists — at least by real spiritualism, 
than by the Christian Church. 

He did not contend that all spiritualists believed 
in the Christ of Christianity, but he did contend that 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


77 

the genius of spiritualism and of primitive New 
i estarnent Christianity — the Christianity of Jesus 
of Nazareth— was one. 

“ Christianity,” he said, “entered upon its career of 
conquest, on the festival day of Pentecost — when the 
first circle of Christ’s followers received the tuition of 
spirits. The phenomena appeared before all eyes, 
in the tongue-shaped aura that crowned each head 
in the room where they were sitting — as in a seance 
— and the ears of the gaping multitudes in the streets 
were astonished and charmed as the now inspired 
friends of the dead Jesus declared the wondrous 
truth, in man)^ vernaculars, under the Spirit's con- 
trol. 

“They spake in other tongues, as the Spirit gave 
them utterance — is the record. 

“They were not learned linguists — but plain, un- 
lettered folk — average common people, gathered to 
the Master s side by many and different causes — yet 
all cohered by the unexpressed expectancy of the 
humanity of that time. 

“A tax 'gatherer, several fishermen, a dreamer or 
two, and a few devout women — a mere handful of, in 
the main, indifferent people, composed the circle of 
this gieat, divinely-gifted Medium — Jesus of Nazareth 
— whose beautiful life, tragic death, and undoubted 
reappearance, and public exhibition of his person, 
fully materialized, as he ascended from the earth into 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 

the heavens, disappearing as a cloud, were the won- 
derful phenomena of that day, the basic facts of the 
great pentecostal propaganda, and are to-day the 
ground and pillars of the Christian faith. 

“Who has not heard learned, eloquent descriptions, 
of ‘ the outpouring of the Spirit ? * 

‘ ‘ What preacher of the Christian faith has not held 
up these phenomena of Pentecost, as the overwhelm- 
ing demonstration of spirit communion ? 

‘ ‘ Peter, at the very hour of pentecostal, spiritual gifts 
and feasting, set the example when he exclaimed, 
with a fervour that is contagious to this day — ‘These 
men are not drunken (in answer to the mob's gibes 
and sneers), as ye suppose ; but this is that which 
was spoken (foretold) by Joel, the prophet ; And it 
shall come to pass in the last days, (saith God), I 
will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your 
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your 
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall 
dream dreams : ’ and much more of the same pur- 
port. 

“The day had come — and the Spirit bestowments 
had come ; scales fell from the eyes of men and the 
wondrous visions were seen even as now by the clair- 
voyant under spirit control : tongues, even of women, 
were liberated and gave utterance to burning prophe- 
sies of hope and comfort in all the languages of the 
world under the instantaneous tuition of inspiration, 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


79 

even as now, in these days, by the same law of spirit 
control. 

“ Who, among you, who, among the Christian 
churches of to-day, can be found to dispute the rec- 
ord I have cited, or the deductions I have only indi- 
cated, but which are plain enough.? 

“ Who will deny that the whole scene of Pentecost, 
was accepted by the disciples, Peter and the rest, and 
IS accepted by the entire body of Christian believers 
to-day, as a proof of Christ’s return to the bosom of 
his Father, God, and that those strange gifts, were the 
tokens of his continuous love, as well as distinctive 
demonstrations of his divine powers. 

“ I do not affirm nor deny. 

“ My object is to state the facts. 

“The philosophy and phenomena of Spiritualism 
stand on the same law, and do but gloriously demon- 
strate to those who will receive, the same love, the 
same power, and the same facts, not as pertaining to 
Jesus of Nazareth only, but, in degrees and conditions 
of limit or liberty, as pertaining to every one, who, 
passed through the shadowy gates, has left here to 
mourn loved ones, whose tearful eyes are gazing 
after him out upon the viewless way he has van- 
ished. 

‘ ‘ The tokens return. 

“The voices speak again, as some Peter, or Mary, 
becomes entranced and controlled by the Spirit — ‘ as 
the Spirit gives utterance ’ — and the broken heart is 


8o 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


healed, and the sombre array and tokens of funereal 
gloom and superstition give way and vanish before 
the joyous fellowship of friends restored to one 
another. ” 

As Comfort ceased speaking, I felt that we were 
being enclosed by a very comfortable atmosphere of 
spirit, and I am sure the room in which we were 
sitting was crowded with those on whom death had 
conferred freedom. 

Dr. Graeme, I was glad to see, took ample notes 
of the utterances of the evening, being a skillful 
stenographer, and I am deeply indebted to him for 
the fullness of my report. 

Brother Caleb was greatly affected at times, during 
Comfort’s remarks, doubtless thinking tenderly of his 
Master, Christ, and longing to see him in the glory 
with which he invests him — and perhaps ^wondering, 
if, alter all, he had judged too harshly — although in 
love — the little woman who sat near him, and whose 
face fairly shone with joy. 

The evening ended with a song — Mary, Miriam 
and Comfort, with Doctor Graeme as bass — sang the 
favorite words of Newman — 

Lead kindly Light ! amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on. 

The night is dark, ami 1 am far from home, 

Lead thou me on. 

Keep thou my feet , I do not ask to see 

The distant scene ; one step enough for me. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


So long thy power has blessed me, sure it still 
Will lead me on 

O’er moor and fen?- o’er crag and torrent, till 
The night is gone; 

And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile ! 

Oh ! the answering- music ! 

He that hath ears to hear let him hear. 

6 


82 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

A TRUE MEDIUM. 

It was agreed next morning that we would attempt 
to hold a regular seance on the evening of that day, 
Brother Caleb being particularly anxious to hear a 
medium speak — “ who was possessed/’ as he put it, 
although when the words had passed his lips, I 
could see regret like a shadow pass over his counte- 
nance. 

Mary expressed herself, as being willing to be used 
for the furtherance of truth, and would at once send 
a message to Mr. and Mrs. Follene, who were guests 
at a fashionable wintering resort five miles away, to 
attend if possible, and thus strengthen and harmonize 
the desired conditions. Mr. and Mrs. Follene were al- 
most strangers to us, but were known to be very intelli- 
gent believers in Spirtualism, and were well known 
to Mary as such. I at once said that Jed should sad- 
dle my pony and carry the invitation, but as I made 
my proposition I noticed a very significant smile 
wreathinp^ Miriam's face. who. as soon as Brother Caleb 

o 

had gone out, said : “ You forget, papa dear, that Mr. 


I 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 83 

and Mrs. Follene will get Mary’s message by spirit- 
ual telegraph, and you need not summon Jed.” 

“ I feel that they will be with us this evening, 
father, ” Mary said. (She called me father in our family 
circle out of regard for Miriam, I suppose, since they 
were so like sisters) “ some good angel will impress 
them to come, — besides they owe Miriam and me 
a call and I rather think they have already partly 
decided to come over to-day.” 

So I dismissed the matter from my mind, and went 
about my daily duties on the farm. 

Doctor Graeme and Comfort offered their services 
to farmer Dan to hoe cabbage, and, as we were just 
a little pushed for hands, their offer was gladly ac- 
cepted, and they were soon proving their skill and 
endurance in the fields. 

Brother Caleb, who is a prime favorite with farmer 
Dan, accompanied that most worthy gardiner out to the 
beet patch and rendered valuable aid in thinning out 
and transplanting beets. It was a frequent saying of 
Mr. MacDougall (Dan’s full name), that “ civilization 
spiled a gude gard’ner, when she made out o’ Mister 
Caleb a spoutin’ parson. ” 

‘ ‘ Well, ” Brother Caleb would reply, — ‘ ‘ our occupa- 
tions, Mr. MacDougall, are not far apart, nor, in a sense, 
widely different. You are toiling in Brother Light’s 
gardens, and I am a humble worker in the Lord’s 
Vineyard.” 


84 


ANGELS'^ VISITS. 


“Aweell, aweell, maist ony man could make a 
preecher body, but, man, it taks janious to mak a 
pritty gard’ner.” 

With these, and such like pleasant sallies over, they 
would buckle to, and work like beavers for hours, 
keeping up a very confidential chat the while in jerky 
and disjointed sentences ; Caleb talking about the soul 
and its salvation (farmer Dan is not given to saintliness) 
and Dan indulging in learned speculations upon the 
origin, the evolution, and final life expression, of ruta- 
bagas, cabbages, and beets. 

The evening brought Mr. and Mrs. Follene, sure 
enough, and a most agreeable addition they proved 
to our home circle. 

“We discussed coming, John and I, just after 
breakfast this morning, but concluded to wait another 
day, as quite a picnic was on the tapis and a pleasant 
sail on the lake, but after luncheon, I could not shake 
off the feeling that we should pay our visit to you to- 
day, and, as we always try to yield to good impres- 
sions, here we are — and, thanks, yes, another cup of 
tea will refresh me after our ride.’* 

“ John does not drink tea,” continued Mrs. Follene, 
“ but I assure you he is a capital hand at brewing it 
— is brewing the right word. Miss Miriam .? ” 

“You say you were impressed to come over this 
evening, Mrs. Follene?” I ventured to remark. 

“I should say so,” replied her husband; “and 


ANGELS' VISITS. 85 

pretty strongly too, you may be sure, when we gave 
up an engagement on account of it.” 

“ We are thankful gainers, good friends, and we, at 
least a few of us, this very morning heartily desired 
that you would come, and complete our circle for 
spiritual instruction this evening.” 

Oh, as to that, nothing can be more agreeable, 
especially with so harmonious a company, and I as- 
sure you we had that in our minds too,” was the quick 
response. 

“ Speaking of impression,” said Doctor Graeme, 
“might not your feeling of this morning, have been 
caused by the earnest wish of some of our company 
that you might visit us this evening .? I think I heard 
something said about sending a messenger to invite 
you — and 1 really thought it had been done.” 

“ Well, yes,” replied Miriam, “ you are quite right. 
Doctor, and the message was sent, not by a flesh and 
blood messenger, however, but by one of Mary Vans 
carrier doves.” 

Brother Caleb broke in at this point, having passed 
his cup to be filled. 

“ Now you speak riddles, child, — and pray ex- 
plain .? ” 

“Ask Mary,” said Miriam laughing gaily. 

All eyes were fastened on Mary, who sat sipping 
her tea very demurely, but evidently enjoying the 
conversation. 


86 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


“ Unriddle the riddle, Miss Mary, do ! ” urged Doc- 
tor Graeme, in which request we all joined. 

“ Nothing is easier,” answered she, “ although 
very wise people may affect to dispute it.” 

‘‘ This morning, father, Miriam and I agreed with 
the rest of you that we would devote this evening to 
a spiritual seance, and we resolved to invite John and 
Selma Follene to join us — and thereupon the message 
was sent to them, and, as you see, here they are, our 

most obedient ” 

“Is that all ? ” queried the doctor. 

“Who took the message,” demanded Brother Caleb, 

assuming a semi-serious manner, “and ” 

“ The message took itself, a trusted thought along 
one of the invisible lines of sympathy that Nature has 

ordained for our convenience and happiness,” 

exclaimed Comfort Miller ; whereat, we all clapped 
our hands, and voted him one more cup of tea. 

But Brother Caleb was not satisfied with the answer, 
and wished to know if Comfort really meant what he 
said, and if that was really his explanation of a matter 
which, to say the least, was curious indeed. 

In reply Comfort said, “Either that or else some 
good angel impressed the desire of our friends that 
Mr. and Mrs. Follene might be with us this evening, 
upon them. Either is solution enough for me, but I 
really think that the one given is the true one.” 
Brother Caleb shook his head. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


87 


Who sent the message? ” he again asked. 

“ I did,” responded Mary. “ I shut my eyes tight, 
so, (closing her eyes), to see Selma better, and thought 
at her to come over to-day without fail— but if I did 
wrong, Uncle Caleb, I am sorry for it.” 

“ And I received dear Mary’s message in the form 
of an impression and desire to come ; so strong and 
so persistent, that I made John break an engagement 
to fetch me,” added Mrs. Follene. 

“ For which service the aforesaid John, otherwise 
John Seymour Follene, will exact full pay in due time,” 
gaily chimed in the dutiful husband. With which 
dreadful threat, which provoked Mrs. Follene to 
“ make a face,” at John, we retired from the tea-table 
in the best of spirits. 

Later on we gathered in the parlor, and began the 
evening with music, Miriam presiding at the melodion. 
By a sort of selection of the fittest. Comfort Miller, 
although no audible request was made, assumed the 
leadership of the seance. 

Doctor Graeme, as before, took full notes of every- 
everything that was said, and I shall make use of 
them in my account of the evening. 

Friends,” Comfort began, “ with one exception, I 
think I may say that all of us here present, are, in 
different degrees, believers in what is called spiritual- 
ism. We are not speculators in phenomena, nor 
seekers after novelties to gratify a morbid taste, but 


88 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


are, I trust, feelers after God, searchers of truth, and 
conscious correspondents in thought and sympathy 
with our loved ones, and others, who have passed 
before us into the great universe of spirit. 

‘ ‘ What we know, we know. 

“What we have realised in communion with one 
another and with spirits, according to our belief, is 
esteemed by us beyond power of words to express. 
We can afford to listen in silence and without offence 
to the evil attributed to us, so long as we know our- 
selves to be pure in life and purpose, and we can 
render good for evil, by holding fast the beginning of 
our confidence, and breathing only blessing and good- 
will toward our fellow beings who charge us falsely 
with evil purpose and evil doings. 

“ Deep down, all honest souls are related to the same 
work — and sooner or later the light that shines upon us 
will shine upon all, and the despised doctrines and 
philosophy of spiritualism will become the household 
lessons of humanity. 

“Since we have been acquainted, we have talked 
much about some of these truths, and last night we 
had quite a conversation, in which our friend Mr. 
Soyer participated, about Jesus of Nazareth, that most 
illustrious revelation of God to humanity, the great- 
est and holiest medium of any age of record, since 
man has occupied this earth. 

“We spritualists, contrary to the popular opinion of 


i 


AJVGELSr VISITS. 89 

US, ^-o not hold him in disesteem, do not seek to rob 
him of his own, whether of achievements of devotion 
while on this earth in the human form, or of power 
and influence, station and glory, in that exalted sphere 
m which he now lives resplendent and adored. 

“ We do not esteem him the Infinite God — the per- 
sonal creator and preserver of worlds and of man, 
— nor do we sympathize with the view held by many 
good people, that his physical life and blood cruelly 
taken on the Cross of Calvary, was exacted and ac- 
cepted by Infinite Justice as an. atonement for the 
crimes or sins of finite humanity. In the true spirit of 
his mission to bless, enlighten and uplift mankind, 
this dear Christ sought not relief from any task, 
refused not to drink the bitterest cup, and freely 
gave up his life — counting it not dear unto himself, 
uttering, with his last breath, a prayer and a blessing 
for his cruel murderers, who yet mocked him while 
he prayed. 

“Such love, such devotion, such divine compassion 
as he exhibited, to the very last, endear him to every 
one who has heard his name — and forever it will be 
said of him — 

“ ‘ He died, the Just for the unjust, that he might 
bring us to God.' 

“ But the glory of his life and the powers and sym- 
pathies that were so transcendent in him, did not 
vanish from our world when he ascended. 


90 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


“ He himself declared, that the works which he did 
— works of mercy and of love — and the power, the 
Spiritual grace through which they were wrought, 
would be continued with even greater fullness ‘ be- 
cause I go to my Father.’ 

“At first it was so, for his immediate disciples, en- 
dued with his spirit and following his instructions, 
performed mighty works wherever they went, heal- 
ing the sick of all diseases, cleansing lepers, and 
bringing to the knowledge of men the true life and 
immortality. 

“What spiritualists believe to-day the early Chris- 
tians taught ; what spiritualists teach and proclaim 
to-day bring back to the world the pure doctrines and 
ethics of genuine Christianity. 

“We accept, therefore, with reverence and grati- 
tude the proofs of immortality given to us by our friends 
who are not lost but gone before, and we honor those 
who are gifted to see and hear the angel bands who 
press upon us with eager purpose to help and bless 
us, and we look with expectant gaze for that day to 
break when humanity shall free itself from the vicious 
grasp of superstition and error, and hail with joy the 
light that shines within and upon us, who, whatever 
be our faults and limitations, are ‘ not unmindful of 
the heavenly vision.’ 

“I do not claim,” he continued, “to be under any 
special control or inspiration, at this moment, al- 


A JVC ELS' VISITS. 


91 

though I feel the powerful presence of spirits of light, 
and am conscious of the nearness of dear ones whose 
voices I most love to hear.” 

When Comfort had ceased speaking, Brother Caleb 
said he would like to ask a question. 

“You say, dear friend, that you feel the powerful 
presence of spirits of light, and are conscious of the 
nearness of dear departed ones ; what I want to ask 
is a more particular account of that feeling and con- 
sciousness, something that will preclude the proba- 
bility that you are simply the creature of a pleasant 
but not unnatural fancy or fiction ? ” 

“ I have often pondered over that very point,” Com- 
fort replied, “fearing that my more or less intense 
yearning for tokens from across the river, became the 
source and substance of my subsequent sensations. 
But while to some extent it must be so, I am sure that 
there is borne in upon me from beyond, the strange 
warm, delicious, independent feeling, that my friends 
are near me, that, as in life here, they still feed me 
with their thoughts and love: My mother has been 
dead, as you know, since my youth, and yet, should 
she now enter this room in the flesh, her presence 
would not be more real to me — the spiritual me — 
than it is at this moment. I sense her presence, the 
testimony is in my heart. 

“ No one but mother could fill that void that 
aches and calls when she is not. 


92 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


“The general feeling is that of exaltation, illumina- 
tion, inward peace and happiness. I do not think the 
feeling is different from that which I have so often 
heard you express concerning the peace of God, the 
presence of Jesus the Lord, the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit, and such terms as cover and stand for a dis- 
tinct experience in the mind and sensations, which 
comes through either real actual contact with the 
persons and things named — or belief that it is so.’' 

“Yes,” said Brother Caleb, slowly, and as if musing, 
“Jesus said when two or three are met together in 
my name, there am I in the midst of them. And 
Paul says, ‘ If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, 
he is none of his ; and if Christ be in you, the body 
is dead because of sin, but the spirit (yours) is life 
because of righteousness.' Again he says, ‘For as 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons 
of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage 
again to fear ; but ye received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit himself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children 
of God."' 

‘ ‘ That is our contention in brave, strong words. 
Brother Caleb, and every true spiritualist will find no 
difficulty in standing in with Paul. Christ in the 
midst of two or three, is a matter of spiritual recogni- 
tion and acceptance, otherwise he is not there. To 
have the Spirit of Christ and Christ in you, as Paul 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


93 

declares necessary, is, in a realizable and demon- 
strable way, to be related to him, to be subject to his 
control, to move forward in sweet accord, consciously, 
with him, and to carry out his will and purpose. 
Are these mere fancies, mere fictions of one’s brain, 
or are they realities of sensation and consciousness 
capable of being analyzed, and worthy of the highest 
type of character ? 

‘ ‘ So, with us is the truth, only in its larger signifi- 
cance and application. 

“We open the doors of our lives, and as the Sunday 
school song has it — 

“ ‘ Let the good angels come in.’ 

“And they come in, and the Spirit of Christ comes 
in, just as Paul says he must, and we make him and 
them welcome, receive their sweet ministries, both 
of discipline and encouragement, and are by these 
tokens stronger to bear life’s burdens and fight life’s 
battles. 

“ They settle with emphatic definiteness the ques- 
tion of life’s future, the whither and the why of human 
being and suffering and wandering. 

“As Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, so do our friends talk with 
us in the time of our transfiguration, and we bear 
away from these meetings marks and tokens of the 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


94 

fellowship we have enjoyed and the lessons we have 
learned. ” 

Brother Caleb thanked Comfort for his words, and 
then there was silence for a few moments, that is to 
say, if communing of loving spirits on earth with 
kindred ones from beyond, can be said to be a matter 
of silence. On the plane of consciousness, there is 
noise enough I warrant you. 

Presently Mary Van Elt arose and walked across 
the room to W'here Brother Caleb was sitting, and in 
the most gentle manner, and in tones of exquisite 
tenderness, began to address him, holding his hand 
the while. Caleb was about to be gratified, for Mary 
was in a semi-trance state, and spoke, not her own 
words, but “ as the Spirit gave utterance.’' 

Here are the words : 

“Caleb, your devout parents gave you this name 
when you came to cheer their desolation at the old 
plantation near the banks of the Yemassee, two and 
fifty years ago. Their dust reposes in the old grave- 
yard where generations preceded them to the rest 
that remains, but they are not dead, Caleb, but more 
truly alive and more effectually with you than ever 
they were or could be on the earth. 

“ I have opened up a vista for you. 

“You are looking back over all the way you have 
come since childhood to this hour. Fear not the 
retrospect, Caleb, for, true to your name, and like 


ANGELS' VISITS. 95 

Caleb of old, because you possess another spirit and 
have followed your convictions of duty fully, you 
shall enter and possess the Canaan of safety and 
happiness — the spiritual land flowing with milk and 
honey, where the vales of Beulah invite your sojourn, 
and long-lost loves shall come again to your em- 
brace. 

‘ ‘ Do you remember the happy days before the 
war, Caleb ? 

‘ ‘ Do you recall the gay parties of pleasure at the 
home of her you hold to be the dearest and best of 
earth or above the earth 

‘ ‘ What delightful pastimes you had together. 

“What pride you took in witnessing her complete 
control of ‘ Harry Lee,' the beautiful thoroughbred 
you presented to her on the occasion, never to be 
forgotten, but alas ! whose promise was not to be 
realized for long on earth ! 

‘ ‘ Oh, Caleb, how the times unroll their record. 

“You were pursuing your studies at The Citadel, 
fondly dreaming of happy days to come, when, an 
honor to your profession at the Bar, you could clasp 
to your constant love, her who had exchanged holy 
vows with you under the old oak on the banks of the 
Yemassee. 

“ But it was not to be — not yet. 

“An alarm was sounded. 

“A cry to arms tore over the country from the 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


96 

mountains to the seaboard, taking every hamlet in 
its way where dwelt a youth. 

“War — war, cruel, needless, bloody war, swept its 
fiery waves over all the land, and swept you from 
yours, dear Caleb, for all these many years. 

“Do you remember how you came home only to 
say good-bye to the widowed mother, whose only 
prop and stay you were .? 

“ Do you remember how unselfishly and nobly she 
gave you up for your country, and your home 

‘ ‘ And do you remember, Caleb, who last pressed 
your hand, folded you to her heart, and sealed her 
love with a kiss that yet lingers on your lips 

“ ‘ A little while,’ you said, ‘ a little while, dearest, 
and your soldier lover will return to claim his bride, 
and the days will lengthen, and multiply for our happi- 
ness.’ Committing your mother to our love and care, 
for had not we abundance in lands, servants, flocks, 
and herds, with money in banks to spare.? you left 
for the seat of war, and soon you were at the front 
of the terrible strife. 

“ How drearily the days dragged by, and the nights 
seemed haunted ! 

“ Letters from your brave hand came often, and the 
thrilling accounts of battles fought, and victories 
won, brightened our lonely watch. The months 
dragged on, and, as dangers thickened, and the 
battles became more frequent, the marches more ex- 


AATGELS^ VISITS. 


97 

hausting, and the cause less triumphant, letters came 
at longer intervals, until, after months of painful 
anxiety, watching and waiting, we settled into the 
despairing conclusion that you were among the 
dead — the patriotic dead, on some dread battle-field. 
Years rolled away, years of fearful, and unspeakable 
anxiety, and suffering, of bloody strife with you, of 
grim want, and speechless grief, with us. 

“Our substance vanished. 

“The plantation where generations had been born 
and had died in peace, ceased to be a safe home for 
us, and the stern hand of necessity led us to find 
shelter in the village hard by, until the war should 
end, and time bring back to us our loved protectors. 

“ But it was not to be. 

“One by one, weary with watching, and overbur- 
dened, the household dwindled, death’s kindly wing 
sheltering the feeblest from time to time, until, Oh ! 
Caleb, I alone was left to wait your coming. 

“ At last, the day of tidings came. 

“ The roster of the brave men who laid down their 
arms before the triumphant army was sent across the 
swamps and valleys to cheer and brighten the yet 
living loved ones whose eyes had grown prematurely 
dim with watching and weeping, and whose lives 
were broken by want and suffering and that gnawing 
at the heart which fear for the safety of him you love 
converts into an insatiable wolf. 

7 


ANGELS' VISITS 


98 

“The roster came, as I have said, and, oh, joy ! 
your dear name was there. It was in large, proud 
letters too, because of the valiant deeds connected 
with it. 

“ ‘ General Soyer,' it said in the list of names, ‘ the 
brave General Soyer,' and my heart grew young 
again. 

“ Oh, Caleb, I need not recall all the sweet particu- 
lars of our meeting. 

“The memory is the richness of heaven to-day to 
me, and to you through all the intervening years, it 
has been a most sacred memory locked up with miser 
care in the holiest chamber of your heart. 

“ How often, dear Caleb, have I surprised you gaz- 
ing, gazingfondly and tearfully into that face — my face 
— so deeply and truly engraved on your faithful heart ! 

“ How often I have tried to answer the loving 
appeal of your spirit, to know if she lives to whom 
your heart belongs, and if you shall see her again. 

“No real, tangible sign has come to you in all these 
years, and you have been patient, generous, faithful, 
and a living picture of the blessed Christ, going 
about doing good for goodness’ sake, and denying 
yourself even the innocent pleasures of life out of 
sympathy with those who were denied them by fate. 

“Well, as you know, the meeting moment came, 
and with it all the sweet, and heroic explanations — 
how you wrote and wrote from camp, from field, 


A JVC ELS' VISITS. 


99 

from hospital, and from the enemies^ prison pens — 
how you could get no answer from us, and how, at 
last, you came to fear that all was lost, and you alone 
remained of the dear old circle to live and suffer. 

‘ ‘ The flight of years, and the liberations of death 
had even intensified the fellowship of my heart with 
you, dear Caleb, in those darkest days. 

“Your fears were nearly realized too, for indeed all 
had escaped from the evil times of our immediate 
circle, save you and I. 

“ And we found each other — and — heaven. 

“It was short lived — our earthly union. 

“Only one short year of communion, of heaven, of 
awful happiness, was granted us, and this is how 
it ended. 

“One night — oh, Caleb, you remember — one night 
a little cry was heard in our home, a little child’s cry 
— oh, so faint, so plaintive, so touching, so inquiring 1 
It thrilled us with nameless joy, for it was our child, 
come in a gloomy time to brighten our lives and give 
us new ground of contention as to who should most 
dearly love the other. 

“But, alas ! it was a night without a morning. 

“The mother and the child, ere day dawned upon 
the murmuring river, passed together out to the wel- 
coming arms of waiting loved ones, and to find rest 
in the bosom of God. 

“ Can you doubt, dear Caleb, that the desolation left 


lOO 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


to you was a most touching fact to us, who with all 
conceivable fondness lingered about, but could not 
make our presence known to you? 

“ Not an angel of all the throng that sympathy at- 
tracted both for us and you, was there, who did not 
attempt to certify to you in some way the fact of 
sympathy and love. 

“ And you were sustained by divine and spiritual 
grace and power, and over the coffin containing the 
earthly remains of your wife and child you conse- 
crated your life to the good work which, without in- 
terruption, has filled it ever since — and fills it now. 

“ The joy of this hour, my dear Caleb, must not be 
sullied or marred by a single expression of doubt, or 
fear, or regret, or self-upbraiding. 

“This is a reunion, let our recognitions lack noth- 
ing essential. 

‘ ‘ These friends are walking in the light. They have 
learned, in part, the great truth which you also know 
in part. This dear lady, who is called a medium, is 
gifted by nature, but also prepared by the grace of 
love to be a door through which many can come to 
loved and anxious ones like you. 

“Spiritualism thus exemplified and taught, dear 
Caleb is the victory of love over all obstructions, thread- 
ing its winning way along those ordinances of Nature 
which have all along been hidden from the great and 
wise, but are now revealed and simplified to the child- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


lOI 


like in heart and in life, the loving links of harmony- 
in the blessed chain of human progress. You desired 
to hear a medium speak, dear Caleb, who would 
speak the words and possess the spirit of another. 

“ It has come to pass for you, and the happiness of 
it lies, partly in the fact that the words spoken open 
up a sealed chapter in your dear life, shared in by 
one, whom, for many years you have sincerely and 
lovingly mourned as lost. The spirit possessing, for 
the moment, the form of Mary Van Elt, is none other 
than your own lost and found lover and wife, 
Salome Benoit Soyer.” 

The voice of the medium died away in a sigh, and 
as Brother Caleb looked up into her radiant face, 
as she still stood before him, her great hazel eyes 
fixed on his, we all pardoned the impulse which 
brought him to his feet, caught the fragile form of Mary 
in his arms, and imprinted a chaste kiss upon her 
cheek, while great tears relieved his overcharged 
heart. 

The pencil dropped from Doctor Graeme s fingers, 
and a wild sob of feeling and sympathy broke from 
him as he bowed his head upon the table. 

As for the rest of us, it is needless to say that, for a 
time, we were held by 

A speechless awe that dared not move, 

And all the silent heaven of love. 


102 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


When Miriam came to kiss me good-night her face 
seemed to reflect the love-light of the A.ngel Mother, 
— as she sobbed her message of devotion on my 
breast. 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


103 


CHAPTER XIV. 

TAKIN G BEARINGS 

And now I exhort you to he of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of life among you, 
but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am 
whom also I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must stand before Cesar: and lo, Gcd 
hath granted thee all those that sail w'th thee. 

Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I beliei'e God, that it shall be even so as it hath 
been spoken unto me. Acts xxvii. 22-25. 

Land, ho!'* 

“ Where away ? ” 

“ Dead ahead, sir." 

I CAN give no particular reason for introducing this 
chapter as I have done — but I fancy a kind of parallel 
in circumstances between Paul, in the distressful yet 
hopeful emergency in which he was, and some of us 
who, with the memory of last night’s lessons, greeted 
one another on this morning after. 

There was no lack of good cheer, for Mr. and Mrs. 
Follene, who spent the night with us, made the 
morning roseate with their contagious cheerfulness. 
Indeed our entire household assembled in the break- 
fast hall with healthy appetites and companionable 
dispositions. 

Brother Caleb showed signs of having slept little, I 
thought, but, barring a slight evidence of pre-occu- 
pancy of mind, he was his old self with a gentler 
flavor, if possible, of tenderness. 

The words of Mary to him, purporting to come 


ANGELS* VISITS. 


:c)4 

from Salome Benoit Soyer, his wife, were revelations 
to us — supposing them to be true, for, while we have 
known Brother Caleb for several years, we knew not 
that such episodes as last night’s revelations implied 
had filled his life. Naturally, therefore, we were all 
more or less anxious to know how much truth had 
been told, although, for my part, I doubted not but 
that the whole was true. 

We were not long kept in suspense, for Brother 
Caleb s straightforward character asserted itself, and, 
if possible, shone out in grander proportions than 
ever. 

At his request, we all repaired to the parlor after 
breakfast. 

With considerable difficulty Brother Caleb con 
trolled his feelings, as he began to speak to us, but 
as he warmed up, his voice became steadier and 
his manner more subdued. 

This is what he said : 

“My friends, I have asked you to meet me here 
this morning that I might speak to you out of my heart 
concerning the very strange, and, to me, most 
wonderful occurrences of last night. I walk as in a 
dream — I seem to be some one else. 

I want to say to you, that the words spoken by 
our young friend, Mary Van Fdt— no matter how they 
came to her— and addressed to me in the name of 
one long since dearl, are true in every sense. 


AJVGELS^ VISITS. 


105 

‘‘This strange meeting has brought forth from the 
deep grave of my heart facts and scenes and memo- 
ries, known only to her who on that night referred to 
went out to God, and to me who was left stranded 
and broken, stricken and afflicted, until it shall 
please God to restore us again to each other. Salome 
Benoit was an angel on earth, and for the year that 
she was my loving and worshipped wife, she made 
the desert place in which we lived a paradise of God. 

“For all these years, since the night God took her 
from me, I have been going about and in my weak 
way trying to do good, and make myself worthy to 
see my angel again when this toilsome day is done. 
I am, as you know, a Methodist — a Methodist preacher, 
although an unworthy one. 

“ I have always attributed spiritualism to the work of 
the evil one, and have looked upon its believers as, in 
the one case, deceived and deluded, and in the other 
(as in the the case of mediums), willing tools of the 
devil. 

“ I hope I am forgiven for any uncharity I may have 
exhibited in adopting such views and living by them. 

“I have known this dear family for several years. 
I consider sweet Miriam and her good father almost 
members of my flock, but I have known that they 
were, in a sense, believers in spiritualism, due, as I 
believed, to the great influence of my friend, Comfort 
Miller, who, with well-known ability, advocates what 


Io6 ANGELS* VISITS. 

I have heard called Christian spiritualism, a term con- 
veying the idea that spiritualism, as he teaches it, in 
no way antagonizes genuine Christianity, and we 
have all felt the power of his words on this subject 
since we have been so pleasantly associated under 
this hospitable roof. I will here admit that listening 
to Brother Miller has much modified my views on 
the fundamental ideas of spiritualism and the sources 
of its attractions ; while the most marvellous revela- 
tions, if I may call them so, of last night, affecting 
my personal life, however come by, leave me with- 
out reason for feeling aught but kindly and lovingly 
toward those who are believers in the genuineness of 
such revelations, and who are gifted to receive and to 
declare them. 

“I cannot say that I believe. I cannot formulate 
my feelings. I am filled with mixed emotions. 

“ My heart has been torn open by mighty memories 
brought up by the words of this dear child, who I 
know spoke without previous knowledge. A name 
has been spoken, which I am sure was never heard 
before by any of you, a name, dearest of all names, 
next to that of my Saviour, to me. How account for 
all this ? Who will solve the mystery ? 

“Is there a solution other than that which you be- 
lieve ? 

“ I cannot at this moment say whether what has be- 
fallen me, what has been said to me, so tenderly and 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


107 

SO sweetly, as coming from my heart’s idol, adds to 
my happiness or increases my doubt. Give me time. 
Let me think, and pray. Help me with your patience, 
and with your sympathy. 

“Oh, if the church, after all, is a blind leader of the 
blind ! But it is not in me, my friends, to shrink from 
any proper ordeal, and I shall certainly try and pass 
through this, and, by study, prayer, and due dili- 
gence, get at the truth, find the solvent and be guided 
thereby. 

“We have a few days yet to be together, and I hope 
between now and the day of my departure more light 
will shine upon us, and that we may — that I may, 
find the truth if I have it not. Perhaps I have much 
to unlearn. 

‘ ‘ Perhaps my secret sorrow, which for so many years 
has burdened me down, has also limited my spiritual 
vision, and prevented the enlargement of my soul. 
I believe in immortality and have longed for the hour 
when this mortal shall put it on, and for the reunion 
which my religion teaches me shall become a fact 
in that place where sickness and sorrow, pain and 
death, are felt and feared no more. 

‘ ‘ To realize that we can now and here hold conscious 
communion with our sainted dead — alive forever- 
more, is something that I have not thought possible, 
and, I may say, desirable, and yet, to-day, I find 
myself longing to hear more, even though my mind 


io8 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


misgives me. My heart yearns, but my mind hesi 
tates, and almost rebels. 

‘ ‘ The evidence is clouded, for the fear of a different 
solution obtrudes. I admit that this may arise from 
previous and life-long education and inherited belief, 
and the possibility of sinning against the Holy Ghost 
is ever present as a growing fear. 

“ I would give much for the unquestioning faith that 
you all seem to possess. You are happy, if I may be- 
lieve your words, and accept your lives, as they now 
appear to me, as evidence. 

“ I no longer allow myself to question your sincerity, 
and I give you my hand in token of my confidence 
and love. 

“ I suppose I am weak, and I know that I am un- 
strung, but, God helping me, I will know more of 
this whole matter, and if there is clearer light and 
surer evidence, I trust and pray that it may fall on 
me and come to me.” 

Turning to Mary Van Elt, Brother Caleb extended 
his hand, which Mary warmly clasped, and said : 

‘'To you, dear child, I, at all events, owe thanks, — 
and perhaps apology. 

“You are a revelation tome. I no longer wonder that 
Brother Golden, Miriam, and the rest, love you with great 
love. Your face shines with the light of honesty and 
love. If it is an index and expression of your soul ; that 
soul is beautiful indeed. Your strange gifts are be- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


109 

yond my comprehension, as they appear to be beyond 
your own. Oh, my child, if it is given to you to talk 
with angels, to see them as they come and go, and 
to repeat their burning words of hope and encourage- 
ment to struggling mortals, your mission is indeed 
Christlike and heavenly. Whatever doubt exists in 
my slow believing mind as to the phenomenal facts 
as they appear, I beg you to feel that I do not doubt 
you, — your sincerity, your honesty, your purity and 
goodness. God bless you, my child, and may His 
holy angels ever have you in their holy keeping." 

We all breathed “ Amen ! ‘ to Brother Caleb’s good 
prayer and blessing, but Mary did more, she became 
entranced instantly, and responded to Brother Caleb in 
words of hope and tenderness worthy of Christ Him- 
self, and brought us all again into the melting mood. 

Doctor Graeme attempted to take down her words, 
but utterly failed, so absorbed was he with the scene 
and the inspiriting utterances. I have heard eloquent 
preachers in my day— such as Bishop George Pierce, 
Bishop Matthew Simpson, Henry Ward Beecher and 
others of high renown, but for impassioned, holy 
thought, for tender, soul-stirring spirit, for finished 
diction, together with a nameless something beyond 
all these, nothing within my memory approached the 
glorious response of Mary Van Elt to Brother Caleb’s 
noble words. 

It left us all exalted on the mountain top of Pisgah 


I lO 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


— while dear Brother Caleb was more perplexed than 
ever. 

And so the morning ended, and we went our 
several ways, after bidding Mr. and Mrs. Follene 
good-bye, who returned to their hotel as happy as the 
word will admit of. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Ill 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS. 

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy . — New Testa- 
ment. 

There are spiritualists and spiritualists. Belief in 
spirit communion, and the conscious practice of it, too, 
does not necessarily imply wisdom, love, devotion 
to humanity, and correct lives. We agree that, rightly 
viewed, it should do so. 

In the exercise of spiritual gifts, — mediumship, — you 
may often find great contradictions, and, alas ! lack 
of corresponding character and goodness. 

It has always been so. 

There were lying prophets in the olden times, and 
many who were gifted and honored as seers and 
diviners fell victims to evil influences, and after hav- 
ing been the medium of enlightenment to others, 
themselves became castaways. 

The popular cry against spiritualism, because now 
and then a believer or medium falls, or becomes en- 
tangled in evil practices and surroundings ; the loud 
denunciation of mediums, because occasionally one is 


\ I 2 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


detected in the perpetration of fraud for notoriety or 
gain, ought not, in a just mind, to militate against 
the truth, nor should it be accepted as the legitimate 
fruit of spiritualism. If churches were judged by 
such unfair methods, how long would Christianity be 
able to present its claims 

Doubtless, there are false mediums, even as there 
were false prophets and false Christs, and as there 
are false preachers, but a little common sense and 
a sincere love of, and search after truth, will soon 
separate the false from the true, the real from the 
semblance. 

“ A tree is known by its fruits.” 

“By their fruits shall ye know them.” 

After Pentecost the power of the apostles of Jesus 
greatly augumented, and their followers and depend- 
ants multiplied, recruited as they were from the af- 
flicted and poor who were healed and blessed, with 
astonishing rapidity. 

In the record — Acts v. 12-16 — it appears that, by 
the hands of the apostles were many signs and 
wonders wrought among the people . . . and 
believers were the more added to the Lord, multi- 
tudes, both men and women ; insomuch that they 
even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid 
them on beds and couches, that, as Peter came by, at 
the least his shadow might overshadow some of them. 
And there also came together the multitude from the 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


II3 

cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folk and 
them that were vexed with unclean spirits ; and they 
were healed every one. 

“ How were they healed.^ ” 

By touch, by word, by look, by the power of sym- 
pathy — spirit-power — in the persons of the apostles 
and mediums. Their very shadow as they passed 
had virtue in it, for as it fell in noiseless grace upon 
the prostrate and helpless victims of disease, health 
and vigor began to assert themselves. 

Nineteenth century blindness and superstition may 
either deny the record or esteem the mighty works 
wrought as miracles ; but it is plain that the people 
of that time did not think so, unless to be endued 
with spiritual power through spirit control is a 
miracle. On a certain occasion, as Jesus was teach- 
ing and healing, the priesthood demanded of Him, 
‘‘‘By what authority doest Thou these things.? or 
who is he that gave Thee this authority .? ’ ‘I will 
also ask you a question,’ replied He, ‘and tell Me : 
The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from 
men .? ’ And they reasoned with themselves, saying. 
If we shall say, from heaven, He will say, Why 
did ye not believe him .? But if we shall say. From 
men ; all the people will stone us : for they be 
persuaded that John was a prophet. And they 
answered, that they knew not whence it was. And 


II4 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what 
authority I do these things/* 

But elsewhere, in his lessons to his disciples, after 
their failure to cast out evil spirits, he told them 
that power to do so could only be acquired by 
“fasting and prayer,” — by consecration and spiritual 
possession and power. 

So, the works of mercy, such as casting out evil 
spirits, cleansing lepers, opening blind eyes, and 
healing all manner of diseases, by word, touch, or 
look, wrought by the apostles, — not to speak of the 
light of hope shed into dark souls, — caused a great 
commotion, one day, almost a riot indeed, so that 
even the lives of the divine healers, were in imminent 
danger, in the midst of their gracious work ; the 
public streets being the hospitals in which the im- 
potent and sick mulitudes lay, waiting to be healed. 

The High Priest and the Sadduceean population, 
filled with rage and jealousy, had the healing me- 
diums arrested and cast into prison. But prison walls 
are not sufficient barriers to hold in or keep out this 
power of spirits. 

What was the result .? 

. “An angel of the Lord by night opened the prison 
doors, and brought them out, and said, Go ye, and 
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the 
words of this Life. ” 

This was a bold movement on the part of the angel ; 


tJVGELS^ VISITS. 


I15 

but, if you will consult the record in Acts v., you 
will see that he knew his mission and his mediums, 
and accomplished the good work of vindicating the 
power that Jesus claimed for himself, and which 
his disciples, after him, possessed and exercised, by 
spirit control. 

A Pharisee, Gamaliel by name, a noted counsellor 
at law, gave the jealous, baffled crowd some good 
advice on that occasion, and as it is exceedingly 
pertinent now, I may be pardoned for adopting 
it and offering it in all love to whom it may con-, 
cern. 

‘ ‘ Ye men of Israel, said he, ‘ ‘ take heed to yourselves 
as touching these men, what ye are about to do. 
For before these days rose up Theudas, giving him- 
self out to be somebody ; to whom a number of men, 
about four hundred, joined themselves : who was slain ; 
and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and 
came to nought. After this man rose up Judas of 
Galilee in the days of the enrolment, and drew away 
some of the people after him : he also perished ; and 
all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad. 
And now, I say unto you. Refrain from these men, 
and let them alone : for if this counsel or this work 
be of men, it will be overthrown : but if it is of God, 
ye will not be able to overthrow them ; lest haply ye 
be found even to be fighting against God.'' 

They agreed to this, and let the healers go about 


ii6 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


their ways of mercy — but not until they had beaten 
them and denounced them roundly. 

History, it is said, repeats itself. 

Well, let us not be deterred from the right word 
nor the right work because of detraction or persecu- 
tion, — but all the more persevere, rejoicing as our 
early prototypes did, that we are counted worthy to 
suffer for so good a cause. — Love will conquer. I 
do not know why I have interjected this chapter, 
unless it may chance to fall under the eye of some 
one who is being hounded down for truth’s sake, 
and is just now in need of interference on the part of 
some good angel. 

. My dear friend, those with whom we co-operate, and 
the Infinite One whom we serve, will not leave you 
to be devoured by the dogs of persecution and detrac- 
tion. To suffer and be strong is your high calling. 

When Jesus was in his great passion in the retreat 
of Gethsemane, forsaken by nearly all who had 
reason to cling to him to the last ; hunted by 
his persecutors and subsequent murderers ; as he 
swooned upon the pitying earth, no man being 
near to sustain or comfort him, an angel dropped 
beside him and ministered to him. Blessed angel, 
timely angel ; opportune angel ; thanks to thee ! 

So will it always be with the world s Christ with 
the vicarious teachers and workers of, and for, 
humanity. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


fl7 

The burdens will grow unseemly heavy ; the dark- 
ness will intensify, the fires of persecution will grow 
hotter and hotter, the human helpers and sym- 
pathizers will fall awav or be overcome with sleep, — 
and you must drink the bitter cup alone. Not quite, 
not' utterly. Not at all. Angels are picketing all the 
way your weary feet must tread. 

Every cloud hides them. In the light of every star 
•oiey shed the radiance of their presence upon you. 
Along invisible lines they come to you. In the su- 
preme moment they will bear you up in their hancis, 
and bring you through. 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


iiS 


CHAPTER XVL 
mission of spiritualism. 

Doctor Graeme ied off in the evening by deprecating 
the fact that so much division exists among spiritual- 
ists, some contending for one phase of manifestation 
and some for another ; some seeking only the excite- 
ment oi physical phenomena, others dennouncing as 
fraudulent all such. 

He was in favor of encouraging all phases, and 
defending all grades of genuine manifestation from the 
simple rap on a table up to materialization, and up to 
the highest gifts of vision and of speech under spirit 
control. 

He advocated organization at some length, and 
wondered why a universal movement toward it were 
not visible. 

He thought the spirit of liberalism was a danger as 
well as a blessing, seeing that many were led too far, 
and were found, as he believed, to be in active oppo- 
sition to the real trend and mission of the spiritual 
philosophy. 

Brother Caleb took part in the conversation, and of- 
fered as an argument against spiritualism the fact that 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


II9 

SO many of its advocates, if he understood them, ruled 
Christ out entirely, and would hear nothing in favor 
of Christianity, sweeping away all moral barriers, 
and substituting the human will or, what is worse, the 
guidance of the senses. He delicately touched upon 
the argument so often made by ill-informed persons, 
that the effect of spiritualism was to lower social 
status, and weaken those ties which, in the social order, 
answer for the legitimate continuance of the human 
race, and the increase of public morality. 

He said that the subject was painful to him, and 
that he would be glad indeed to become better in- 
formed on these matters, and to be made to see the 
contrary trend and tendency. 

It would seem, he argued, that to live in daily 
communion with angels of God, and the spirits of 
departed loved ones, should strengthen all good im- 
pulses, emphasize all truth, and make goodness more 
and more desirable and attractive. It should prove 
the greatest defence of morality and social goodness, 
and virtue — and in nowise tend to weaken moral 
restraints. 

He did not, he said, affirm that it did not do so ; he 
only gave utterance to familiar popular opinions and 
testimony so far as they had fallen under his notice. 

He acknowledged that his personal acquaintance ( 
with spiritualists was limited, indeed almost to the 
present company, and he was glad to feel that the 


20 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


spirit here manifested, was most beautiful and 
heavenly, and he hoped that it was not necessary 
for him to say that his objection to spiritualism and 
spiritualists had not the remotest reference to the 
dear friends of this household, or of the present circle. 

I suggested that perhaps public opinion in many 
things was based on misconception, and ignorance 
of the real truth, principles, and facts, underlying and 
constituting the philosophy of spiritualism. It was 
of the very first importance, in the first estimate of 
this philosophy and its adherents and advocates, to 
know whether or not its principles and teachings are 
in themselves moral, judged by the highest standards. 
Is the morality of this philosophy different from that 
which all pure minds accept, whether it be called 
Christian or Jewish, Mohammedan or Hindoo Greek 
or Roman. 

Are there several moral codes ? 

Is the essence of morality one everywhere, or vari- 
ous, as men conceive it ? 

Is morality a creature of rules and regulations of 
human formulation .? 

Is it not rather the soul of right, or the conscience 
of right, implanted or breathed into humanity and 
into the universe by the Infinite Creator .? 

What is moral law, or the moral law ? 

Who shall define it .? 

What authority shall interpret it ? 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


I2I 


It goes without sayirxg that whatever it is and 
wherever it is, it is obligatory on all. But where will 
you search for it Outside of yourself 

Is it something independent of your consciousness, 
lying somewhere hidden, waiting to be discovered 

If it is not found within you, where shall you look 
for it .? 

Fichte, the German philosopher, says, that, “The 
formal law of morals is this : 

“Always act in conformity with your convictionsr 
of duty, (obey your conscience). 

“This rule includes two others : First, try to under- 
stand clearly what is your duty in every matter ; then, 
when you are convinced what your duty is, do it, 
for the sole reason that you are sure that it is your 
duty. ” 

Spiritualism, as I understand it, adopts and em- 
phasizes this law, even as Jesus did — in his Sermon 
on the Mount— and as all good Christians do when 
they truly interpret him. 

The criterion of morality is the conscience — not 
another man’s, but your own. 

I do not mean that one should not take counsel of 
other men s consciences, in arriving at right conclu- 
sions, but I assert the very contrary, that they should 
do so. Not for the purpose of lessening the sense 
of responsibility, but for confirmation of truth and 
right. 


122 


ANGELS* VISITS. 


This is the common practice of mankind, and so it 
is that certain things are settled, because universal, 
or concrete conscience of mankind through ages, has 
made them so. 

Now, let us bring ourselves to consider spiritualism 
in relation to all this, and what do we find ? 

We find these primal rules cardinal in the philos- 
ophy of spiritualism. 

How can communion with exalted and gifted and 
loving spirits — which holy commerce we maintain — 
set aside, weaken, or obscure such rules, and such 
order 1 In the very nature of things, must not such 
communion strengthen and refine the moral con- 
science } 

Who has ever heard a message from a spirit, even 
through the most humble medium, advising or direct- 
ing, or sanctioning the breaking of any one of the Ten 
Commandments, much more the repudiation of the 
Sermon on the Mount ? Such a thing has never oc- 
curred — in spiritualism. 

But distinguished “vicars of Christ” have been 
known to smash all the commandments, and cast the 
Sermon on the Mount into the Tiber, so to speak, at 
different times and for very depraved reasons. 

High church functionaries and bishops, gave their 
sanction in Christ’s name to nameless crimes com- 
mitted by a psoric King of England, in pursuit of 
guilty pleasures, and gloried in their shame when 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


123 

they hailed him, reeking with matchless corruption, 
as the “ defender of the faith ! ’’ 

Evil spirits and evil passions lead men captive, and 
official Christendom has more than once bowed the 
knee before depravity enthroned and in power. 

Misery and sorrow are let loose like overwhelming 
floods by human disregard of moral restraints and 
convictions, and the appealing voice of conscience. 

Shall we judge Christianity by these awful be- 
trayals .? 

If a spiritualist is thus betrayed and yields himself 
to such evil tides and impulses, be sure it is over the 
beseeching cries, the thundering protests, and the 
overthrown restraining love of the wise and good 
spirits, who, with knowledge and all holy teaching, 
constantly urge and direct him in the better way. 

Is it a small reinforcement of conscience to feel 
that, by your side and for the right, is a sainted 
mother, a protecting father, a loving wife, a devoted 
dependent child, in spirit with you, for you, and in 
you .? 

Is it a small thing to fellowship, either directly, as 
we may do, or through some gifted medium, with 
the illuminated minds and great hearts of the good 
men and women who, having passed through earth’s 
tribulations with triumph, stand ready to aid and 
strengthen us, by counsel and sympathy, who are 
yet amid the seas of struggle ? 


124 


ANGELS* VISITS. 


If you make answer and say, Why not take Christ 
for your help ? 

I reply — We do, and we will ; for, what does that 
name signify spiritually, but a power, a wisdom, and 
a grace, through love, which angels and men may 
and should extend and manifest toward one another? 

What is the Christ spirit, the Christ power, the 
Christ life — but the exhibition, the possession and ex- 
ercise of those divine influences and forces, and that 
devotion to humanity, which in Jesus found fullness 
of development and expression. 

Spiritual philosophy is the mind of Christ, and its 
life and practice the heart of Christ, perpetuated to 
the world. 

There are diversities of gifts, as Paul says, and there 
are many points of view. The laborers and teachers 
are not all cast in one mould, yet are all cohered by 
one power, and all are pressing toward one goal of 
triumph — the betterment of humanity, its self-recog- 
nition and knowledge of divine relationships. 

We do not all speak the same language, but the 
utterance in each and all is by the Spirit. Let us not 
vex ourselves needlessly nor retard the cause by creat- 
ing useless diversions, whether in the interest of organ- 
ization or a greater homogeneity. 

There is organization, and there is homogeneity, 
because there is organic law, the organic law of liberty. 
There is unity and fraternity — world-wide, because 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


125 

the Spirit of truth is our leader, and all truth is the goal. 
When a man asks of spiritualism, qui bono P the 
answer comes from above, from around, from beneath, 
from near and from far, until it blazons itself in poly- 
glotal fire over the heavens and the earth that all may 
read : 

“That all may come to the knowledge of the truth. ” 

It is God’s tuition of man. 

It is the accommodation of infinite resources to finite 
necessities, the emptying forth by all spiritual minis- 
trations, of the heart of God upon the hearts of men. 
As for the angels, ‘ ‘ Are not they all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation,” 
as the good book declares and who that reads history, 
or has ever closely considered his own inner life, is 
without peculiar and convincing testimony ? 

The conversation of the evening was brought to 
an end at a late hour, but not before Mary Van Elt 
voiced to us, in poetic language, one of its most in- 
spiring lessons. 

I am not much of a poetaster, but as these words 
fell from Mary’s lips, they thrilled me because they 
seemed to come from an inspired earthly evangel 
appealing to the heavenly ministers of grace — for 
sympathy and aid in behalf of the world lying in dark- 
ness. Here they are : 

Join in my song, ye angels fair. 

Strike your bright harps as ye fly with me ; 

Silvern this dawning, radiant and rare ; 

Equally joyous our song shall be. 


126 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Hither and thither we fly, — we fly, — 

You from the spheres of ineffable light ; 

From the deep valleys of shadows come I — 
Skirting the rayless night. 

Join in my song, O angels fair. 

Strike your soft lyres as ye fly with me ; 

Bring we the dawning, radiant and rare, — 
From whose rising the night shall flee. 

Fly with me, O, come fly with me 
Into dark continents, — over the sea ; 

Search we for bound ones. 

Set we them free : 

Search we for blind ones, 

Make we them see : 

Search for the lost ones, 

Home guide them, we. 


Brother Caleb was also deeply affected, more, I think, 
by the enraptured manner of the speaker than by the 
simple words. For a moment I think he fancied him- 
self at an old-fashioned conference meeting, for no 
sooner had Mary ceased, than he raised his strong 
voice, not unmusical either, for Methodist preachers 
are generally good singers, and sang alone with great 
feeling, these words to the tune of Asmon : 

Angels, assist our mighty joys ! 

Strike all your harps of gold ; 

* But when you raise your highest notes, 

His love can ne’er be told. 


I took a turn in the garden after bidding good-night 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


T 37 

to my happy guests, with my e^entle Miriam by my 
side, and we both thought that the very stars blinKed 
and burned with unwonted brilliancy, and the voices 
of nature around us seemed to be rehearsing a new 
song. 


126 


ANGELS^ y/SITS, 


CHAPTER XVII. 

SHADOWS AND DAYBREAK. 

What shadows we are^ and what shadows we pursue , — BURKE. 

A shadow catne and lingered where the sunshine stood bef ore, 

— Anna K. Green. 

Until the day break and the shadows Jlee away . — Solomon. 

We feel the pressure of shadows. 

Down they unfold from all-where, and thick stud 
our way like phantom forest trees. 

Sometimes they seem to grow downward from 
above, and they do, most truly, spring up from with- 
in. Of the former, perhaps if we knew their purport 
and their composition, we would feel less concern to 
have them melt away. 

The progressive, sensitive soul, in sensing things 
invisible that hang about the human horizon, need 
not fear that they are directed by some malicious 
power to harass and retard life. 

They are rather friendly consorts on the mental 
sea ; invisible pilots over the stormy passage, more 
substantial than the thoughtless and unawakened 
ever think, these accompanying shadows in life’s 
way. 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


129 

One thing is certain : nothing moves in the spirit- 
ual horizon of life rightly guided, to hurt or destroy. 
Our own creation, fears, and will, must make them 
so, and by our failure to apprehend or to realize right 
relations, they fail of their ministry. 

There is never a shadow that sweeps across your 
path out of the mystery of things (not made by your 
own wrong doing) that is unfriendly. 

It signifies only a good token. It tells of some- 
thing near — something that will unfold good to 
you. 

It is a prophecy of enlargement. It is the advance 
courier of a new day until it break, as the mists roll 
up and disappear in the sky before the coming sun. 

When the beleaguered prophet of Israel prayed 
that his servant s eyes might be opened, the aston- 
ished young man saw that the very clouds that 
floated in the heavens round about his master, were 
full of horses and chariots — a mighty host of angels 
in battle front, ready to defend and protect the good 
prophet. He knew they were there. 

His ear caught the sound of the approaching angel 
host. His eye descried their coming over the cloud 
tops. 

Ah ! many among us can tell a similar story. 

You whose lives are devoted to the cause of good- 
ness and humanity — you who, in the face of con- 
tumely and detraction, poverty and pain, pursue 

9 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


130 

your faithful way, led by good angels, and sanctified 
by love, willing to suffer the loss of all things, that 
an unspiritual and blinded world covets, if so be you 
can bring light and hope into dark places, you can 
testify to clouds of witnesses, and clouds of helping 
hands, and clouds of encouraging angels ! 

But there are different shadows attending us. 
When a gifted medium hears the seraphic sounds of 
angel minstrelsy, and interprets them to our wonder- 
ing sense, are we to attribute it to delusion or worse ? 

When one speaks, as though he or she is moved 
by some earnest, loving spirit, controlling for the 
time her organism, and the words are pertinent, 
gracious, calling up scenes and memories, remi- 
niscences and forgotten facts in the life of him to 
whom they are addressed, shall we call it the work 
of the evil one — the inspiration of Satan .? When 
another, standing before the great congregation, 
utters burning words of eloquent appeal, singing 
words of poetic beauty, powerful words of truth and 
duty, enticing words of hope and prophecy, tender 
words of love and grace, as with the breath of divine 
inspiration, being controlled for the time by some 
burning and shining angel of light — shall we de- 
nounce the unconscious instrument as a fraud, a 
trickster, a child of the Devil } Shall we pierce the 
all too sensitive life with the poisoned arrows of our 
rage and unbelieving raillery ? 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


131 

The guides of humanity must pass along this way. 
The prophets have always been so treated — and 
stoned. 

The seers and interpreters of truth in the olden 
time fared thus at the hands of their beneficiaries, from 
peasant to king. Rude and rough is the world’s 
reception of its saviours and prophets, its liberators 
and pioneers of progress. It is a shadowy way, 
through which they must pass who lead, and who 
must blaze the way for after generations. Paul, 
whose sufferings for the cause which inspires us 
read like a chapter of romance, tells his brethren and 
fellow-sufferers something of the heroic devotion of 
their ancient pathfinders and seers — who were the 
prototypes of the true and faithful workers for 
humanity under divine and angelic direction, to-day : 
“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought 
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the 
mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped 
the edge of the sword, from weakness were made 
strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight 
armies of aliens. Women received their dead by a 
resurrection : and others were tortured, not accepting 
their deliverance, that they might obtain a better 
resurrection. Others had trials of mockings and 
scourgings, yea. moreover of bonds and imprison- 
ment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, 
they were tempted, they were slain with the sword : 


132 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being 
destitute, afflicted, evil entreated (of whom the 
world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and 
mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth/’ 

We can track their weary footsteps all along the 
line of progress, to this day. To them the angels 
gave countenance and good cheer, while the world 
persecuted and put them to death. Daybreak came 
to them, and the shadows fled. 

We may not be driven by the same whips, but the 
path of duty, of obedience to the Spirit of truth, of 
spiritual and moral guidance of mankind, is still 
thorny — a rugged and a shadowed path. 

The bravery of truth must still be exemplified. 
Who would be accounted worthy to lead, must be 
ready for sacrifice. 

Who would truly interpret the heavenly message 
to men, must not count the cost. 

He who would stand in the breach and hold aloof 
the standard of progress and life, must not shrink 
from fiery darts. The world is given to crucifying its 
saviours. 

But inspiration, spirit illumination, knowledge of 
the truth : these are the unfailing sources of integ- 
rity, endurance, and all faithfulness — until the day 
break. 

We shall not falter, nor want courage in the day of 
trial. 


A JV GELS’ VJSITS. 


133 


The soldiers in this glorious war. 

Shall conquer though they die; 

They see the triumph from afar, 

By faith they bring it nigh. 

Still other shadows. They are the projections of 
our own evil doings. 

Spiritualism has a message to those who are 
floundering beneath these. 

They have their substantial roots within. 

They darken the life with sorrow-laden clouds, and 
sad are the plaints that ascend. 

I do not refer to the ephemeral gusts of shadows 
that fly out of our oft mistakes ; but of the creations 
of our wilful moods when we abolish conscience. 
They are the results of our purposeful wrong-doing, 
and they closely haunt our way, the very ghosts of 
our evil selves. They will haunt and hover about us, 
far into futurity, until by our obedience and submis- 
sion to truth in the inward parts, the day shall break. 

Oh ! the wilfully darkened lives ! It is a sad 
picture — that of a life burdened, inclosed, and clouded 
with the dark infolding shadows of persistent wrong- 
doing. 

To them the moments are haunted. There is no 
avenue for thought to travel that is unobstructed. 

Although no voice is heard in the darkness, the 
pendency of awful utterance is an oppression most 
hard to b^r. 

There is constant dread of utterance 1 


134 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


The soul crouches beneath the shadows, and is 
afraid of the voice it never hears. 

For all these things are but the conjurations of 
guilt by the conscience — and whips of retribution. 

Hoarse, horrible and strong, goes up to heaven 
the agonizing cry, 

How long ? O God, how long .? 

This gospel of spiritual light and truth an- 
swers : 

They must last until the evil effects of the wrongs 
done are exhausted and expiated. — “Until the day 
breaks and the shadows flee away.” You must wait, 
you must suffer ; you may hope, and look for the 
light which one day will break its blessed way to 
you. Having despised warning and chosen evil, 
you must bear with yourself and your condition 
until the day break. 

You are not despised, nor doomed nor damned !— 
you are just self-undone, self-banished, self-encom- 
passed until the day break. It will break and the 
shadows will flee away. You can hasten it, and help 
is at hand. 

Let me now address some words with particularity 
to certain conditions of mind and life, within the 
sphere of loyal duty — yet much in need of encour- 
agement. 

There are those among us whose lives are a con- 
stant offering on the altar of humanity, and the 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


135 

shadows about them spring from their inability to 
see of the travail of their souls. 

They see plainly the way of duty in love, leading 
to sacrifice, and they nobly tread therein. But they 
do not see the fruit of their devotion, with the same 
clearness. They are, in a true sense, the vicarious 
elements in human society. 

They bear the burden for the thoughtless and the 
ungrateful, often. 

They are fathers and mothers of reckless sons and 
daughters, who are ensnared in the follies of their 
times. 

They are also the men and women who espy the 
paths of life for their race, as I have already described, 
yet, they think, unavailingly. 

They have the conscience of humanity. They re- 
alize the stupendous privilege of living. They do 
not view life as a venture but as a permanence 
whose path penetrates the unseen and becomes 
luminous to the appreciative. 

They do not insult themselves with the thought of 
low origin, and they do not offend their mother and 
father — God, with doubts of goodness and wisdom 
and perfection in the perpetual outcome. 

Life is not a mere probation — a sort of trial exist- 
ence,— but a glorious beginning whose possibilities 
are beyond the conception of the mind in its finite 


136 ANGELS^ VISITS. 

relations, because the perfect in character and en- 
joyment is not here on earth. 

The present, understand me, is not in itself imper- 
fect, it is only unfinished. No life is finished here. 
Nothing is entire. 

Every day’s development unfolds beauty, grace, 
and brings corresponding good, — yet to these advan- 
ing souls, the shadows appear. 

Progress is slow, sometimes painful, and many 
faults remain. 

And so — until the day break. The perfect is yet to 
be in all entireness, in spite of the chaos of the 
doubtful now. Here is but the beginning — hereafter 
is always — and the to-morrows will be brighter : 
Brighter for you, brighter for all, brighter forever. 
Every true life is added leverage to the whole world 
of humanity, and in the serene heights of one's 
achievement, dwelling in the sunshine and rest of 
the far progressed life, the goal is realized in which 
one time all souls shall share. 

Until the day break the shadows abide, but the 
voice of assurance in every quickened soul speaks 
certainly of the break of day that must be. 

The patience of hope is not, therefore, a meaningless 
expression, but a spiritual one — and humane. 

It belongs to the gospel of spiritualism, and is a part 
of speech in its philosophy. Take courage — some- 
body must blaze the way, — let it be you. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


137 

Somebody must press on with the haste of human 
necessities, you are a trusted one. 

You should be happy in the thought. Forge ahead. 
The day will break behind you. And you Why, to 
be sure, you will be revelling with the Angels of Light 
on the top of Heaven’s eternal morning. 

Yet again. Are you tired ? Be patient with me, 
and let us go on. 

There are those who come into life with feeble 
germs of faculties, with windows of the soul darkened, 
and with physical environment of deprivation. 

The normal state is never theirs in the mortal 
life. 

There is an inheritance of physical lapse and con- 
sequent mental disability. 

The hues of life to them are dark, generally 

With avenues closed through which the sunshine 
should and would come but cannot come, — sadness 
and melancholy settle down over them. Theirs is 
the most shadowy way, and often, the pain of it is, 
that they know it and divine its cause. 

Sometimes this condition is intensified by unkind- 
ness, by wrong, and by neglect on the part of others, 
and then the darkness thickens and soon culminates 
in night. Everything suffers eclipse, even love, even 
the love of God. 

Anon, the clouds lift, and through the fugitive rifts, 
the light breaks. To all such, spiritualism has a 


Angels' visits. 


138 

perfect gospel, — and it comes with the joyful assurance 
of a daybreak to be. 

The hour is coming when all bonds shall be broken 
— and the prison doors of the soul shall be opened by 
willing angel hands. 

The day shall break. 

And what a day ! 

What compensations await the patient soul whose 
earth life has known only the cloud for a canopy, 
and melancholy hauntings for companionship. 

The life has a. new beginning — and with an experi- 
ence of want and limitation and sorrow that becomes 
a trustworthy adviser — in that time when the day 
shall break. 

Once more : our gospel of spiritual truth, comes to 
those who walk through life among the tombs. There 
are many such. Their cry is, my companions and 
friends are removed far from me, my house is desolate 
and forsaken. 

There is music no more, only silence and death. 
The sun has gone down forever, and I walk, hence- 
forth, in the shadows. . 

Will the day ever break ? 

The lessons and hopes offered by Christianity are 
well enough — but do not afford present relief. The 
hope of physical resurrection is not only forlorn but 
baseless. The promise of reunion after death in 
some bright clime where separation will never need 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


139 

to be more, is consoling in a limited sense, for always 
there is a standing doubt, and the eyes of faith can- 
not see for tears. 

Reconciliation with such a stroke of loving Pro- 
vidence, does not, in reality, result from the most 
elaborate Christian instruction. The aching void 
remains. 

The heart, all lacerated by the cruel blows, said 
to be inflicted by the most merciful hand, is not com- 
forted, and the life henceforth takes on the sombre 
hues of grief and mourning. 

The blessed evangelism of spiritualism comes with 
peculiar grace and fulness of revelation to such as are 
thus bereaved. It does not promise resurrection, but 
it shows its spiritual accomplishment. It does not 
speak of some meeting again of the cruelly parted, 
in an indefinite time and state. It parts the veil, 
and the lost are found to each other. There is hardly 
a mystery — only a revelation and a recognition. 

The living spirit is helped to announce itself, and 
proves its identity by all the signs that love alone in- 
terprets. There is no deception — only natural, spirit- 
ual sequence. 

It is said that the loving women who went to the 
tomb of Jesus to lay the fragrant flowers, so em- 
blematic of their fond but fading hopes, at the feet 
of the dead, saw an Angel at the entrance, who said 
‘‘ He is risen. He is not here.” 


140 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


If such a scene occurred, it must have occurred just 
so ; but I think the Angel was misunderstood, or the 
recorder did not appreciate the significance of the oc- 
currence. The Angel doubtless said — / am risen — 1 
am here, for it is quite natural to suppose that it was 
Jesus in spirit form himself, who shortly after, mani- 
fested more fully to one of them who mistook him for 
the gardener. 

Spiritualism teaches the uninterrupted, continuous, 
identical life, whose eclipse in death is but a quick 
exchange of form with all proper functions and facul- 
ties, not intact only, but expanded and intensified. 
It teaches, and demonstrates, that this life is immedi- 
ately, if conditions are found — and them also it reveals 
— manifestible, so as to be recognized and known 
by all the marks and tokens that the senses can 
take in. 

You may call this phenomenal if so it please you, 
but it is no small consolation to the mother who 
realizes her son ; no small delight to the child who 
feels and knows again the living presence of the 
parent. The heart’s wild beating is quieted. The 
speechless agony of doubt and despair gives place to 
exclamations of joyful recognition. Life is even 
sweeter than before, because it draws its sustenance 
from both sides of the line, and, in a glorious sense, 
lives there and here at once, in blissful consciousness. 

Sings Gerald Massey : 


A/VGELS^ VISITS. 


14.1 


“ One by one the dear old faces fade, 

Hands wave their far farewell while beck’ning us 
Across the river all must pass alone. 

We stand and gaze upon their shining track. 

Until the two worlds mingle in a mist, 

And the two lives are molten into one : 

Familiar things grow phantom-like, remote; 

Things visionary draw familiar -near; 

The picture that we gaze on seems real, 

Looking at us, and we. 

The shadows that pass.” 

“ Wherefore, comfort one another with these 
words.'' 


142 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

OUR FATHER, MOTHER, GOD. 

God is truth and light his shadow. — P lato. 

I believe in God ! ” That is a fair and laudable profession; but 
to acknowledge God when and wherever he may reveal himself, this 
is the only blessedness on earth. — Goethe. 

God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and 
God abideth in him . — New Testament. 

It has been a prime season for work in the fields 
— although suspicion of frost hangs about, and tender 
plants must needs be carefully guarded. 

We have had what we call down here a number of 
“ freezes ” thus far this winter ; and many delicate 
plants, such as beans, tomatoes, and early potatoes, 
have given up life. 

Thus far, we have not suffered to any great extent — 
only a few potatoes and cauliflowers falling victims 
to the icy breath. 

Our company enters heartily into the spirit of the 
season, and several hours each day are devoted to 
labor in the fields by our male guests, while Mary 
and Miriam see to things about the house, and give us 
cheerful provender at regular intervals. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


143 

Doctor Graeme has been busy part of the time, in 
analyzing specimens of phosphate from neighboring 
deposits, with a view of reporting to his principals 
upon their value and extent. 

Miriam assigned to him a small detached room to 
be used as a laboratory, and it has been a most inter- 
esting sight and lesson to watch the chemical trans- 
formations, disintegrations, and cohesions, as agents 
and re-agents were introduced to the innocent-look- 
ing phosphates. 

Graeme is an enthusiast in his profession, and 
nothing pleases him more than to explain the different 
processes as they develop in the crucible, or in the 
test tube. 

Some of the specimens have analyzed quite 80 per 
cent, phosphate of lime, showing a most satisfactory 
quantity of phosphoric acid, which is the ingredient 
chiefly sought after. 

We have also been experimenting with certain of 
these phosphates upon vegetation and crops, in a 
limited way, under Doctor Graeme’s directions, and 
I think important results are unfolding. 

“ I do not sympathize with some of my brother 
chemists,” said the Doctor to me, yesterday, “as to 
the necessity of reducing all of these phosphates into 
a state of availability as fertilizers, by acid treatment. 
I find in this, for example,” holding up a long glass 
tube filled with a most beautiful golden-hued solu- 


144 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


tion, “ a considerable quantity of soluble phosphate, 
that is, soluble in water, and at once available for 
plant food." 

He went on to say that such phosphate, found in 
sufficient quantity, would be a great boon to this 
state, since it would afford a cheap yet valuable ferti- 
lizer, simply ground fine, and applied abundantly to 
the land. 

Our work in the fields among the plants, and Doctor 
Graeme’s labor and studies in the temporary labora- 
tory, fittingly prepare us for the higher studies and 
grander lessons of each evening as we venture to 
feel our way from nature up to nature’s God. This is 
the ideal life, and one is tempted sometimes to wish 
it might be permanent. But I have no doubt that in its 
essential features it is so, and that by-and-by, as the 
scales fall from the eyes of humanity, and all barriers of 
evil conditions are taken down or outgrown, we shall 
have, and enjoy, the freedom of the universe, and 
spirits and men become homogenious, and unob- 
structed highways of consistent commerce, shall 
connect all worlds, and all sentient beings shall 
realize kindredship under the reign of Almighty 
Love. 

Ah, there is a God in Israel ! and he is immanent 
in all things as well as in all men. 

But here I am running on with my gossip, while 
greater matters wait to be told. 


AJVGELS' VISITS. 


145 

Brother Caleb, provokes us all to study and to good 
works, and his objections to modern spiritualism, 
urged in the most loving way, make our evening 
seances altogether delightful. For good spirits, like 
good men, have their moods, and if you want a 
perfect manifestation, you must put yourself in the 
right condition to receive, and also to provoke it. 

Now the perfect condition is sincerity. There are 
other elements, of course, but given a genuine medium 
(if you are not yourself gifted and developed), an 
agreeable company, if several are present, and a 
sincere desire to know and learn ; and if you do 
not tap the fountains of light and truth — I want to 
know. 

But one captious, cranky, pesky, self-inflated, 
don’t-know and don’t-believe, and don’t-care sort of 
person, will spoil any seance, even as he is out of 
harmony with everything. 

There are many such, and, while now and again, 
one who goes to scoff remains to pray, on the whole, 
when possible, all such disturbing elements should be 
excluded from the seance room. There is a flippant 
sort of spiritualism just as there is a hippodroming 
Christianity, but no sensible person need be told 
that these are Mar di gras exhibitions, where all wear 
masks, and all are clowns, and go in for revelry and 
revenue. I am fully set against exposing the sacred 

truths and divine amenities of our spiritual sanctuaries 

10 


146 ANGELS' VISITS. 

to the inspection, the criticism, and the insults of the 
vulgar. 

There is truth to be told in the most public manner, 
and warnings to give, and sweet persuasives to be 
employed, by our speaking and divining mediums, — 
but when you come to the glorious company of angels 
in the seance room, to talk and commune with them, 
are not you on holy ground 

Should such a place and scene be polluted with the 
presence of mere curiosity mongers, or worse 

No ! Keep them out. 

The greatest of all mediums, in my faith, Jesus of 
Nazareth, never admitted the rabble, but only his 
trusted ones, to the place where he communed with 
Angels and God, and often he separated himself 
even from his intimate friends, and went alone into 
the sanctuary of vision, and spiritual communion. 
Reasons are obvious. 

Well, as Brother Caleb had asked us to define the 
teachings of spiritualism concerning God, an evening 
was given to it. There was a free conversation, in 
which all took part, — but it was agreed that the 
words of Comfort Miller,, who seemed to be in a 
most excellent frame, should be taken as conveying 
sound spiritual truths on the subject, truths and con- 
cepts which the majority of spiritualists would doubt- 
less endorse and accept. 

He said :• — 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


47 


“If no other definition of God were presented to 
us than that he is Love, we should have little diffi- 
culty in conceiving of him, and less fear of approach- 
ing him. There would spring up in our conscious- 
ness the strongest natural tie. 

“Our aspirations would be simple, natural, and 
devout, and our religion would be rational and artless. 

“Our ideas of life and duty would take on brighter 
hues, and doubt of the final outcome would find no 
place in our thoughts. 

“All things would tend towards loveliness, and 
goodness. 

“ Duty, pleasure, hardship, disappointment, events, 
circumstances, and what we call judgments and 
retributions, would appear in a different light, and 
would enter into our lives as correctives, occasions 
of exercise, and as ministers of loving discipline. 

“Our conception of the nature and character of 
God colors all that we see, know, and feel. 

It frowns or smiles upon us at the beginning, and 
at the end, of duty and service. 

“It is the sting or the comfort of every trial that 
befalls us. 

“It is the bright or dark fringe of every cloud that 
hangs low over us, or sweeps across our paths. 
When we find ourselves in the midst of adversity, 
when that comes upon us that we do not desire 
for any cause, and from we know not where, — our 


148 ANGELS' VISITS. 

impulse is to connect it with God, or God with it. 

“We search for the reason in our conception of 
him. 

“Fear, doubt, despondency, and even almost hate, 
one at a time, or in a troop, hold court in our feel- 
ings and thoughts : and God is also there. 

“We are indebted to, what, for want of abetter 
term, I call, ‘orthodox Christianity,’ for these per- 
versions, and for the pernicious indoctrination re- 
sponsible for these false views of God. 

“ The tyranny of entrenched error applies the lash 
to all our sensibilities, and horrible doubts and agon- 
izing fears possess us, where the utmost serenity 
should prevail. 

“We are taught that He is the framer of our sur- 
roundings and the reason of them. 

“He has planted us in the midst, and He is the 
Cause and Beginner of all. 

“And questions will arise ; why this or that ; why 
not otherwise since this is painful to us, — and if God 
is good.? I suffer pain, does God delight in my suf- 
fering ? Is he gratified because he hath made me 
capable of pain .? I am baffled, disappointed, sorely 
tried and distressed ; does he take pleasure in my 
weakness, and is he indifferent to my helpless- 
ness .? 

“What kind of a father is your God? He does not 
seem to interfere. His hand — the Almighty hand, 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


149 

does not interpose for my relief. In the dreadful 
hour of despair I cry out, — my God, — and hast thou 
forsaken me } and no answer comes from him. 

“To all this I venture to make one answer : I ven- 
ture to say that at bottom there is a wrong concep- 
tion of God — a wrong one and a false one. And this 
wrong conception is the motherhood of all the savage 
brood of spectres, fears, doubts, and despairings — the 
vultures of false doctrines and views of God preying 
upon your life. 

“It does not make the matter lighter to say that 
holy Church hath so taught, or holy Bible, either. 

“You ask me how I know all this.? I answer : Be- 
cause they have no existence in the consciousness of 
him who accepts the truth that God is love. 

“Perhaps I ought not to say ‘no existence,’ but 
no power to afflict, to terrorize, to alarm, to embitter, 
or to dispossess the better mind. 

“I know what will be said in reply ; this will be 
said: — But there is much evil in the world ; much 
that is unlovely ; much that is terrible ; and much 
that is inconsistent with the idea of goodness in the 
cause, and wisdom in the end, of the things that we 
see, and the world that we know. 

“But the good order of society is founded upon laws 
that all may know, feel, and obey, but which maybe 
violated and are violated by ignorance and folly — and 
so anarchy coexists with law. 


50 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


“Some keep the law, love the law, and society is 
subserved. 

‘ ‘ The right conception is found in these. Others do 
not know the law, do not love it, but defy and break 
it, and so there is confusion, sorrow, pain, and retri- 
bution. 

“ But the law is good. 

“And God is good. 

“The very storm that howls its terrors through the 
guilty creature’s fears, as he seeks to fly from himself 
and his self-inflicted evils, speaks also in tlje still small 
voice, saying, God is good ; Truth is good ; Life is 
good ; Duty is good ; Obedience is good. 

‘ ‘ God IS love. 

“Not loving, simply, as though a mere person, 
exercising an arbitrary faculty. Not a disposition of 
an entity, a nature, a character, one of many powers 
and attributes, graces and faculties. 

“Not a function or attribute of life, simply. Not 
an expression of being, but being itself. 

‘ ‘ God's nature is love, out of which all else up- 
springs. 

“Such is the natural, and, I will say, the true Chris- 
tian, definition of God. It is what spiritualism 
teaches, as I know it. 

“God is immanent in nature, and in man. 

‘ ‘ Let your observing faculties make a test. Look 
out. 


ANGELSr VISITS. 


^51 

Yonder floats a cloud, and far beyond, lost in 
distance, shine the stars. 

“ There rests and glows a landscape beneath the 
sunset glory. Behold yonder mountain backed up 
against the sky. There winds a rill amid the nod- 
ding spires, and — hark ! the royal thunder of the dis- 
tant sea. 

“Feel the ministering atmosphere enclosing you 
about, and the warm breath of the south wind caress- 
ing your brow. 

“Open all the inlets of your being, soul and body, 
and let nature’s subtle grace flow in, and flow through. 

“ Now, tell me your thought.? 

“Your thought is great ; it is good ; it is unspeak- 
able. 

“But that which caused it is greater and better. 

“You whisper — Power. True, there is the sense of 
power, but power is cold and distant, and, while it 
impresses, is unapproachable — like the unquickened 
Christian’s gross God. 

‘ ‘ But this power is different : it is a leal power that, 
with sweet impressment, holds you bound. 

“It is alive, and mindful of you. This immanent 
power that has thrilled you is spirit ; it is intelligent, 
yand benevolent. 

“ It awes, but also melts. 

“It lifts, by its ministry, the mind up to sublime 
heights, and it nestles home-like in the heart. 


152 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


“ Love does that. 

“And God is love. 

“ A Christian minister of our own day has said : — 
‘ The world is the vesture of the unseen God ; its 
whole atmosphere is charged with his presence. 

“‘Whosoever in humble faith, and with a heart 
which longs for truth and goodness, opens his mouth 
and draws in his breath, that man is straightway 
filled, not with some vague influence only, but with 
all the fullness of God. ' * 

“Now, beloved, the Christ-like life — the highest 
human type — is to live and act in this interpretation 
of God. 

“To thus live is to bring ourselves into constant 
intercourse with all good souls on earth, and with all 
good angels who have passed on. He that abideth 
in love, abideth in God, and God abideth in him. 

“Our glorious gospel and philosophy teach all that 
these truths imply, and a life thus guided and sancti- 
fied is blessed beyond expression. There is no bond- 
age to fear, no subserviency to self, no worship of 
mammon. 

“Such is, in part, at least, our conception and 
knowledge of God, in whom we live, and move, and 
have our being, and whose goodness extendeth 
toward all. 

“ He is not far removed from us, but is as near, and 


* Canon Freemantle. 


AJVGELS^ VISITS. 


153 

in touch with our souls, as matter is to our senses. 
There is no mediator required between him and us — 
he IS our Father, and the relation thus recognized is 
legitimate, and, in our attitude, filial. 

“Christ is of him as we are. and is, therefore, our 
brother, and not our Sacrifice and Redeemer, as the 
creeds maintain. The Christ-life, in all its humanities, 
shows us how dear and real is the communion with 
our Father in our right conception of him. As, to- 
ward God, the Christ realized the relationship of love, 
and union with him, so, toward man, he exhibited 
and exercised in wondrous devotion, the same. 

“In this sense, he could and did say, ‘I and 
my Father are one.’ ” 

When Comfort had finished we had a delightful 
song, after which. Brother Caleb spoke for several 
minutes in a very engaging manner. He expressed 
himself as being both instructed and surprised. He 
objected to two expressions in, or rather deductions 
from, Comfort’s discourse, which, he said, seemed to 
strike at the very vitals of Christianity. 

“ They are the substitution of Law for a Personal 
God, and the denial of the Godhead and atonement 
of Jesus Christ.” 

He talked some time on these points, and, while 
we felt that he was defending the indefensible, we all 
felt our hearts warming to him. “ He realized,” he 
said, “ the force of certain facts, and was not one of 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


154 

those to refuse to receive the Light, nor to surrender 
old convictions when they are proved to be errone- 
ous.” 

Comfort asked Miriam to read a few sentences 
from Henry Drummond’s “Natural Law in the Spirit- 
ual world,” which he marked in the preface to that 
remarkable book. 

This is what she read : — 

“Thus, as the Supernatural becomes slowly Nat- 
ural, will also the Natural become slowly Supernat- 
ural, until in the impersonal authority of Law men 
everywhere recognize the Authority of God. ” 

Again : “ There is a sense of solidity about a Law 
of Nature which belongs to nothing else in the world. 
Here, at last, amid all that is shifting, is one thing 
sure, one thing outside ourselves, unbiassed, unprej- 
udiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by doubt or 
fear ; one thing that holds on its way to me eternally, 
incorruptible, and undefiled. 

“This, more than anything else, makes one eager 
to see the Reign of Law traced in the Spiritual Sphere. 

“And should this seem to some to offer only a surer 
but not a higher Faith ; should the better ordering of 
the Spiritual World appear to satisfy the intellect at 
the sacrifice of reverence, simplicity, or love ; especi- 
ally, should it seem to substitute a Reign of Law and 
a Law-giver for a Kingdom of Grace and a Personal 
God, I will say, with Browning, — 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


^*>5 


“ ‘ I spoke as I saw, 

I report, as a man may of God’s work— love, yet alls Law. 
* Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. 

Each faculty tasked, 

To perceive Him, has gained an abyss where a dewdrop was 
asked.’ ” 


As to the relation of Christ to these things, Com- 
fort added: “We do not the less honor and come 
into touch with him when we deny that his death 
was an atonement for the sins of humanity, or that 
he was God incarnate in any other sense than that 
he manifested God to us along the lines indicated, 
and by his life and teachings opened up to us the 
living way into fellowship with the Father, through 
the spirit of his love.'' 


.136 


AI^GELS' VISITS, 


CHAPTER XIX. 

HERE AND THERE. 

The mystery of it . — What is mystery to many men, 
what feeds their worship, and at the same time 
spoils it, is that area round all great truth which 
is really capable of illumination, and into which every 
learned mind is permitted and commanded to go with 
a light. We cry mystery long before the region of 
mystery comes. 

True mystery casts no shadows around. It is a 
sudden and awful gulf yawning across the field of 
knowledge ; its form is irregular, but its lips are 
clean cut and sharp, and the mind can goto the very 
verge and look down the precipice into the dim 
abyss — 

“Where writhing clouds unroll, 

Striving to utter themselves in shapes.” 

We have gone with a light to the very verge of this 
truth. We have seen that the spiritual life is an 
endowment from the spiritual world, and that the 
Living Spirit of Christ dwells in the Christian. 


A ANGELS' VISITS. 


157 

But now the gulf yawns black before us. What 
nriore does science know of life } Nothing. 

It knows nothing further about its origin in detail. 
It knows nothing about its ultimate nature. It can- 
not even define it. — Drummond, in '' Natural Law in 
the Spiritual World.” 


The solving power. — All around us lies the world of 
matter, this vast world above us and about us and 
beneath us ; it proclaims the God of Nature ; flower 
speaking unto flower, star quivering unto star ; a God 
who is resident therein, his law never broke. 

In us is a world of consciousness, and as that 
mirror is made clearer by civilization, I look down 
and behold the Natural Idea of God, Infinite Cause 
and Providence, Father and Mother to all that are. 

Into our reverent souls God will come as the 
morning light into the bosom of the opening rose. 

This party (Spiritualism) has an idea wider and 
deeper than that of Catholic or Protestant, namely : 
that God still inspires men as much as ever ; that he 
is immanent in spirit as in space. For the present 
purpose the doctrine may be called 

Spiritualism. 

That relies on no church tradition or scripture, as 
the last ground and infallible rule. 


158 ANGELS^ VISITS, 

It counts these things teachers, ^ /hey /each , — not 
masters ; helps, if /hey help us , — not authorities. 

It relies on the divine presence in the soul of man, 
the eternal word of God, which is Truth as it speaks 
through the faculties he has given. It believes God 
is as near to the soul as matter is to the senses, 
thinks the canon of revelation not yet closed, nor 
God exhausted. 

It sees Him in Nature’s perfect work ; hears Him in 
all true scriptures, Jewish or Phoenician ; feels Him 
in the inspiration of the heart ; stoops at the same 
fountain with Moses and Jesus, and is tilled with liv- 
ing water. 

It calls God, father, not king ; Christ, brother, not 
redeemer ; Heaven, home ; and Religion, nature. 

It loves and trusts, but does not fear. It sees in 
Jesus a man, living manlike, highly gifted, and with 
beautiful and blameless fidelity to God. * ^ * 

It lays down no creed, asks no symbol, reverences 
exclusively no time nor place, and therefore can use 
all time and every place. It reckons forms useful to 
such as they help. 

Its temple is all space, its shrine the good heart, its 
creed all truth, its ritual works of love and utility, its 
profession of faith a divine life. It takes all the helps 
it can get ; counts no good word profane, though 
a heathen spoke it, — no lie sacred, though the greatest 
prophet said the word. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


159 

Its redeemer is within, its salvation within, its 
heaven and its oracles of God. It falls back on per- 
fect religion — asks no more, is satisfied with no less. 

— Theodore Parker. 


Intuition God’s tuition . — Out of the dust and the din, 
and mists and observations of life, there come 
moments when God permits us to see, in a second, 
farther, wider, and easier, than by ordinary methods 
of logic we can see in a whole life. Do I undervalue 
logic when I say it is inferior to intuition ? Intuition 
at a white heat teaches a man in a single moment 
more than logic ever teaches him. 

Logic constructs the walls of thought, throws up 
ramparts, and lays out highways ; but it never 
discovers. The discovering power is intuition. 

There are certain times when parts of the mind 
lift themselves up with a kind of celestial preparation, 
and we see and think and feel more in a single hour 
than ordinarily in a year. 

However useful and needful reasoning may be as 
compared with these sudden insights, it is scarcely to 
be mentioned with respect. 

Ordinarily we are under the influence of things 
which are seen, and of the senses ; but now and then, 
we know not how, we rise into an atmosphere in 
which Spirit life, God, Christ, the ransomed throng in 


i6o 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


heaven, virtue, truth, faith and love, become more 
significant to us, and seem to rush down upon us 
with more force than the very things which our 
physical senses recognize. 

There have been times in which, I declare to you, 
heaven was more real than earth ; in which my chil- 
dren that were gone spoke more plainly to me than 
my children that were with me ; in which the blessed 
estate of the just man in heaven seemed more real 
and near to me than the estate of any just man upon 
earth . — Henty Ward Beecher. 


Truth ennobles . — It matters little whether born 
on a throne or in a manger ; when reformers arise 
in their manhood all conventionalities crumble 
away, and king and peasant stand in the same 
light. When sublime intuitions fill their over- 
flowing souls, and they reveal man's relations 
to the universe and to his fellow-man, distinc- 
tions vanish in the rapturous glow of eloquence, as 
the frost-work of night vanishes in the rays of the 
rising sun. Confucius was nobly born ; Zoroaster 
stated his ideas from a throne ; Mohammed was a 
noble ; their converts count by the hundred million. 
Eighteen centuries ago a poor carpenter's son was 
cradled in a manger, and arose, and with a breath 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


l6i 


overturned all the cherished idols of his time, and 
founded a system of transcendental purity, which is 
the ideal, even now, of the civilized world . — Hudson 
Tuttle. 


Resurrection . — The resurrection is not from a state 
which is subsequent to death, nor from a state which 
is separated by long intervals from death. 

It is not from a state that is intermediate between 
certain other states. 

It is the resurrection of the dead. It has that 
immediacy. 

This opens for men the communion of saints, which 
is involved in the life of the Church. 

They who have gone have not, therefore, passed 
into a condition of lethargy or vacancy. 

They may be nearer to us, as they are nearer to the 
perfect love. 

They may guide us toward a holier and ampler 
freedom, since they suffer no more the limitations of 
time. 

The veil is rent. 

There is with us the presence of the unseen host. 

It is not alone their memory that remains, their 
spirit may be with us. 

This brings to us the chastity of hope, “ he that hath 

this hope m him purifieth himself d' It becomes the 

II 


62 


AATGELS' VISITS. 


incentive to effort, “seeing we also are compassed 
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay 
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily 
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is 
set before us. — Elisha Mulford^ in ‘ ‘ Republic of God. ’’ 


Unseen^ hui there. — It is not unnatural to feel that 
they who, by wisdom, by valor, by sacrifice, have 
contributed to maintain and perfect the institutions 
which we possess, have also an interest in this day. 

To a spirit alive with memories of the time, and 
rejoicing in its presage of noble futures, recalling the 
great, the beloved, the heroic, who have labored and 
joyfully died for its coming, it will not seem too fond 
an enthusiasm to feel that the air is quick with shapes 
we cannot see, and glows with faces whose light 
serene we may not catch. — Storrs’ Oration, July 4, 1876. 


TO THE PURE SPIRIT OF 

MY SISTER HENRIETTE, 

Who died at Byblus, Sept. 24th, 1861. 

Do you remember, from your rest in the bosom of 
God, those long days at Ghazir, where, alone with 
you, I wrote these pages, inspired by the scenes we 
had just traversed ? 


ANGELS' V/S/TS. 


163 

Silent by my side, you read every leaf, and copied 
it as soon as written, while the sea, the villages, the 
ravines, the mountains, were spread out at our feet. 
When the overwhelming light of the sun had given 
place to the innumerable army of the stars, your fine 
and delicate questions, your discreet doubts, brought 
me back to the sublime object of our common 
thoughts. 

One day you told me that you should love this 
book, first, because it had been written with you, 
and also because it pleased you. 

If sometimes you feared for it the narrow judgment 
of the frivolous man, you were always persuaded 
that spirits truly religious would be pleased with it. 

In the midst of these sweet meditations Death 
struck us both with his wing ; the sleep of fever 
seized us both at the same hour ; I awoke alone ! 

You sleep now in the land of Adonis, near the holy 
Byblus aud the sacred waters where the women of 
the ancient mysteries came to mingle their tears. 
Reveal to me, O my good genius, to me whom you 
loved, those truths which master Death prevents us 
from fearing, and makes us almost love . — Ernest 
Renan, Preface to “ Life of Jesus P 


Especially . — The loving and the tender will be 
there. It would seem as if Heaven was in some 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


164 

especial manner their rightful inheritance : l^ove is 
so infinite, and its earthly horizon so bounded, its 
earthly development so imperfect, its earthly catas- 
trophes so sad ; its undying tenacity, its profound 
tenderness, and its boundless yearning seem so in- 
congruous, as contrasted with its frail objects, and 
its poor performances, and its momentary life. 

There are those, and the denizens of our anticipated 
world may consist of them in overflowing proportion, 
of whose nature affection has been the mainspring, 
the strength, the sunbeam, the beauty ; whose heart 
has been their chiefest treasure ; to whom fame, am- 
bition, power, success, have been at best only the 
casual and outside objects of existence ; who, in a 
word, lived on love. 

Generation after generation, age after age, through 
the countless cycles of the Past, human creatures 
have linked themselves together, never dreaming that 
their connection was limited by time, or that their 
ties would be severed by the great Destroyer, and 
have consigned the husk and framework of their 
cherished companions to the dust, never doubting 
that these comrades watched over them from the 
spiritual world, and were waiting to receive them 
when the years were ripe. 

Millions in all times have walked courageously into 
the Great Darkness, satisfied that they were going to 
rejoin the company of those whose places had been 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


165 

long “ left void in their earthly homes ; ” and, after 
long yearnings, to satisfy again “the mighty hunger 
of the heart ” in the fulness of eternal joy. 

Whatever human affections have been pure, fervent, 
self-sacrificing, devoted, and enduring, look forward 
to Heaven for their renewal, their resting-place, and 
their full fruition. 

If this expectation be delusive, what instinct of the 
heart can henceforth be trusted ? 

And the aspiring and spiritual will be at home at 
last — those whose thoughts have been all prayer ; 
to whom the blessings promised to the meek, the 
mourners, and the merciful are as nothing compared 
to that pronounced upon the “pure in heart to 
whose thought all other beauties of the heavenly city 
are swallowed up in this : “ That there is no need of 
the Sun, neither of the Moon, to shine in it, for the 
glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof.” They shall see God. 

What this may mean ; what may be the nature of 
that vision by which finite and created beings can be 
enabled to behold the Infinite and Eternal Spirit of the 
Universe ; in what manner, or through the bestowal of 
what powers, His awful Presence will be made mani- 
fest to the souls of the just made perfect, we cannot 
even attempt to realize. It may be that the very purity 
which they have striven after here and attained there, 
will endow them with a clearness of sight denied to 


166 ANGELS' VISITS. 

the less unstained of the redeemed, in virtue of 
which they can penetrate to the inner circle which 
surrounds the throne, and reach the immediate 
presence of the Most High. — W. R. Greg. 


The witness within. — There are no occult forces ; 
there are only luminous forces. 

Occult force is chaos, the luminous force is God. 

Man is an infinite little copy of God ; this is glory 
enough for man. 

I am a man, an invisible atom, a drop in the 
ocean, a grain of sand on the shore. 

Little as I am, I feel the God in me, because I can 
also bring forth out of my chaos. 

I make books which are creations ; I feel in myself 
that future life. 

I am like a forest which has been more than once 
cut down ; the new shoots are stronger and livelier 
than ever. 

I am rising, I know, toward the sky. The sun- 
shine is on my head. 

The earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven 
lights me with the reflection of unknown worlds. 

You say the soul is nothing but the result of bodily 
powers. 

Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my 
bodily powers begin to fail ? 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 1 67 

Winter is on my head and eternal spring is in my 
heart. 

There I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, 
the violets and roses, as at twenty years ago. The 
nearer I approach the end the plainer I hear around 
me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which 
invite me. 

It is marvellous, yet simple. 

It is a fairy tale and it is historic. For half a cen- 
tury I have been writing my thoughts in prose and 
verse, history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, 
satire, ode, and song. 

I have tried all, but I feel I have not said the 
thousandth part of what is in me. 

When I go down to the grave I can say, like many 
others, I have finished my day’s work ; but I cannot 
say I have finished my life. 

My days will begin again the next morning. 

The tomb is not a blind alley ; it is a thoroughfare. 

It closes on the twilight to open on the dawn. 

— Victor Hugo. 


We walk in mysteries. We are surrounded by an 
atmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring 
in it, or how much it is connected with our spirit. 
So much is certain, that in particular cases, we can 
put out feelers of our soul beyond its bodily limits. 


i68 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


and that a presentiment — nay, an actual insight — into 
the immediate future is accorded to it. — Goethe. 


And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter (paraclete) that he may be 
with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the 
world cannot receive ; for it beholdeth him not, neither 
knoweth him ; ye know him ; for he abideth with you, 
and shall be in you. 

I will not leave you desolate (orphans) ; I will 
come to you. 

Yet a little while and the world beholdeth me no 
more ; but ye behold me, because I live and ye shall 
also live. — Jesus. 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


169 


CHAPTER XX. 

THE GOSPEL OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritualism in the highest and best knowledge of 
it, is the manifestation and realization of true Chris- 
tianity — a farther and larger revelation of truth to 
men. 

It does not deny the Christ, but perpetuates and 
multiplies him. 

It restores mankind from its wanderings into barren, 
lifeless, and soul-chilling errors and abstractions under 
the blind leadership of a Christ-denying and a Christ- 
crucifying, Mammon-worshipping church. 

It reveals God the Father. 

It reveals and manifests the Christ — the ideal man, 
the true son of God — our brother ; it declares, amplifies 
and exemplifies constant, living, conscious intercourse 
between the Father God and his children, and fraternal, 
co-operative, constant correspondence between the 
members of this divine household — the human 
brotherhood — in the mortal, and in the disembodied 
state. 

It shows every barrier down. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


170 

It reveals the freedom of the Universe to all quickened 
and enlightened souls. There are no walls of parti- 
tion in the world of truth and achievement in charac- 
ter that do not yield at the approach of him in whom 
abides the Spirit of Truth. Every door opens where 
he knocks. The treasures of spiritual wisdom and 
knowledge surrender to him as he seeks. 

In the goodly fellowship of the angels, he pursues 
his royal way, led by the Infinite Spirit. 

It builds upon the good in humanity, strengthens 
and encourages it, and inspires to goodness. 

It does not denounce and punish weakness, but is 
the good Samaritan to bind up its wounds, and also 
heals them. 

It does not exhaust itself cursing the sin that causes 
blindness, but lets in the light. 

It is the Ananias of God in every good angel, 
and in every enlightened soul, saying to the blind, 
infatuated Saul of persecution and evil purpose — 
“ Brother Saul, receive thy sight.” 

It teaches self-recognition, self-respect, self-denial, 
self-development — and its sure sweet rewards are 
found, for those who listen and obey, in the daily 
sacrifices, daily outgoings of sympathy, daily acts of 
kindness and help, daily bestowments of love’s pure 
blessings upon the outcast, the sorrowing, the help- 
less, and the overburdened and sinful, of earth’s 
struggling children. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


171 

Instead of playing upon human fear, it kindles hope 
that grows and expands unto perfect fruition, possess- 
ing the life that now is, and the brighter forever. 

It is, what the angels declared it to be to the shep- 
herds on the plains of Bethlehem, when Jesus was 
born, — “Peace on earth, good-will toward men.” 
Peace in the heart, in the life, in the home, in the 
nation, in the world, in all worlds — peace ! 

“ And good-will toward men.” 

Good-will, not ill-will. 

Harmony, not discord. 

Good-will from God to men, from angels to men, 
from men to men. 

Is it making progress ? 

What a question ! 

It is the divine schoolmaster abroad. It is travelling 
all roads, and threading its enlightening, healing way 
through all the by-ways of human- society. It is 
everywhere an inspired Philip, guided by an Angel 
of the Lord, joining himself to the eunuchs of modern 
emasculated Christianity as they go idling along in 
bands and gowns, and chariots of ease, from Jerusa- 
lem to Gaza — reading the prophets with perfunctory 
indifference ; startling them with the question : — “ Un- 
derstandest thou what thou readest ? ” 

It is the spirit of the Christ himself, entering syna- 
gogue and pulpit, as in the olden time, and once more 
the eyes of the preacher are kindled with light never 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


172 

seen before, and his voice is burdened with a message, 
new, and strange, and wonderful, to all ears. 

It is the old, old message, lost in the world’s 
wilderness, but now being brought back again, in the 
new age, as this Christ returns in the power of the 
spirit, — speaking the forgotten words, as never man 
spake before. 

Let him proceed, O ye Churches ; let the returned 
Christ speak. 

He will repeat the wonders of Galilean days, — 
when he returned from the forty days’ lonely equip- 
ment camp, where, after wrestling with self, there 
was born within him the consciousness of his mission, 
and the spiritual powers pertaining thereto : — that 
“nascent consciousness of supernatural power” 
which you profess to believe was his exclusive 
prerogative. 

Recall what happened, and then know, that, with 
even greater pertinence and power, with manifold 
proofs, and signs and wonders, what then occurred 
is being repeated this day, despite the persecutions of 
ignorance, and the polished, yet furious, interdictions 
of ecclesiastical conventions, and the allocutions of 
mitred arrogance. 

The picture before me is an inspiring one ; it is the 
return of Jesus, the new regenerator, from the wilder- 
ness, and his reappearance in the synagogue of his 
native village, on “Atonement day.” 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


173 

Of him it is said, he — ‘‘ Returned in the power of 
the Spirit.” 

“ In the power of the Spirit.” 

These words are shining lights on the threshold — 
in the foreground, so to speak. They admit within, 
to introductions and revelations, most glorious. They 
answer for great facts in the life to which they are 
applied, and of which they are spoken. 

The power of the Spirit is thought and life power. 

It is power of discernment and of prophecy ; power 
in the truth, and power over the truth, to make its 
mission good. 

It is that power by which the “Son of Joseph” 
merely, is transformed into the “Son of God”; by 
which all the elements of life are fused into harmony 
with the highest and the truest. Life in power, 
spiritually equipped, exercising its functions on the 
highest plane, is the picture. 

Behold your lord and master, your teacher and 
exemplar — bearing with him a spiritual atmosphere 
of irresistible grace and power. 

He comes direct, not from schools of human phi- 
losophy ; not from the anointing of priestly hands ; 
not panoplied with the polished armor of the dialec- 
tician, nor the vain phylactery of the proud Pharisee, 
but from conquest of self and contact with heaven, 
possessed of the Spirit— ^-the preaching Spirit — the 
spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. 


174 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


It proclaims its glowing visions of promise, of 
light, of realization, to the understanding of the deaf ; 
and it unfolds, in bright lines of beauty and of love, 
and of truth, the unutterable recoveries, to the blind, 
who see henceforth forevermore. 

What a preacher ! You may well say it. What a 
preacher, indeed ! 

There he stands yonder, in the synagogue, book 
in hand, and face aglow with divine radiance from 
within. He is controlled by the Spirit of wisdom and 
of love — the spirit which is of God — which is God ! 

Listen, with all your soul, for he will speak. 

The mighty power of the Spirit controls the tongue 
of the Anointed. 

Divinest thoughts go to the human heart and mind, 
in human words, from some faltering human tongue, 
when the Spirit possesses. 

The sweetest sound, in earth or heaven, is the 
human voice with a message from Infinite Love, in 
the power of the Spirit. 

He is turning over the leaves. 

He has found the place, and reads : “The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed 
me to preach good tidings to the poor : He hath sent 
me to proclaim release to the captives : And recover- 
ing of sight to the blind : And to set at liberty them 
that are bruised : To proclaim the acceptable year of 
the Lord.” 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


175 


Queer preacher that, with a message to 
The poor ; 

The captives ; 

The bruised ; 

The blind ; 

and to declare that this message comes from the 
Infinite Lord God. 

It was an unacceptable message to many of the 
people before him — and it fell upon stone-deaf ears — 
even as this same spiritual gospel falls to-day — al- 
though angels declare it. 

Poor, indeed ! 

Captives, indeed ! 

Bruised and blind, indeed ! 

Out, man, the devil possesses you, and not the 
spirit of the Christ, 

We are rich — and want nothing. 

We are lords of monopolies, and of the common 
people, and live in granite and marble mansions, and 
worship God in gorgeous temples, filled with dim 
religious light, and soft music. 

We are whole, and need no such physician. 

“We are monarchs of all we survey,’’ and our eyes 
are open — wide open. Just so. Doubtless, you are 
lineal descendants, in spiritual succession, of those 
who, on the occasion under view, thought : — 

Well ! what will he next say } 

What sermon can this son of Joseph, preach to us? 


176 ANGELS' VISITS. 

They were as true to their self-complacency as you 
are, and did to the Great Preacher what you are doing 
to the true Spiritual Evangel, to-day, — “they rose 
up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him 
unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was 
built, that they might throw him down headlong/’ — 
Luke iv. 

But he was, by Spirit-power, protected from their 
assaults, and passed out unhurt. 

But, the sermon — the sermon I 

Did he preach the sermon } 

He did ; and began it with a sentence that fills all 
receptive minds and answering hearts in all the 
earth, to-day : — 

“To-day hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your 
ears. ” 

There is much more, but this is the key-note. 

The Liberator has come. He is here. He is before 
you. 

To all the world goes forth this announcement, 
that the Christ has come, and lo ! he is but a man 
among men, walking in the power of the Spirit— 
a messenger— bearing hopeful, sweet words, to all 
degrees of needy hearers. 

A physician, who by touch or word, or thought, 
heals all manner of diseases.. 

An almoner of God, who fills hungry mouths with 
bread that grows beneath his benediction the more 


AATGELS^ VISITS. 


177 

it is broken, until the fragments fill many baskets. 

A homeless wanderer, whose friends are of the 
poorest and lowest, himself the friend of publicans 
and sinners. “ The foxes have holes, the birds of the 
air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to 
lay his head.” 

The poor know and love him by instinct, and the 
outcast, and the leprous, the blind, and the beggars, 
shout him cordial greetings as he passes by. From 
the valleys of darkness and sorrows, from the leper s 
quarters, and from the haunts and hiding-places of 
the forlorn and demon-possessed, he goes alone up 
the mountain paths, and straightway clouds descend 
and hide him from human view, and blessed angels 
are in the clouds. The great and mighty spirits of 
the past meet this poor man’s Christ, this blind man’s 
sight restorer, this friend of publicans and sinners, in 
the mountain solitudes, and there strengthen him for 
his task, and sweeten it with their sympathy ! He 
had scant recognition of men, this Christ, but the 
angels never faltered in their fidelity and devotion to 
him. When even the heart of his Father seemed 
turned against him, and the cry of his crushed soul 
went out into the darkness, as of one forsaken, an 
angel came to his relief, and strengthened him ! An 
angel it was. Hey, reverend sirs, what think ye of 
your Christ ? Ye who preach glittering platitudes 

from ivory desks, and who utter soft words to the 

12 


178 angels :' visits , 

Pharisees, the usurers, the grinders of the face of the 
poor, who fill the gilded and upholstered stalls in front 
of you. O ye priests of Christendom ! the aisles of 
whose temples — ostensibly reared to the Christ name 
and honor — are paved with marble and polished 
stones, bought, laid and cemented, with the blood of 
ill-paid labor ; whose walls are works of art ; whose 

“Storied windows richly dight, 

Casting a dim, religious light,” 

SO mars the light of heaven that the sepulchral loath- 
someness within is made to glisten with mellow 
lustre — while music, unfunereal, makes the artifice 
complete ; tell me, what would ye do, should this 
Christ, fresh from the slums, with pity-stained face, 
with weary, dusty, sandaled feet, obtrude within 
your altars 

Would ye give place to him 

Would ye make room for him and his following 

Would ye hail him welcome? Would ye let him 
speak ? 

Have ye done so ? 

The attitude of the Church is a swift testimony 
against you. The condition of society and govern- 
ments is unimpeachable testimony against you. 

The answer of your own conscience is to God ! 

But I want to say this to you, when you receive 
this dear Christ Spirit within your hearts, and, in the 


AJVGELS' VISITS. 


179 

power of the Spirit, admit him to your pulpits, and in 
this power of the Spirit follow him whithersoever he 
may lead — whether it be to the hovels of the poor, 
the dens of criminals, the hidings of outcasts — or into 
some “desert place apart,” where angels will com- 
mune with you, and power of the Highest over- 
shadow ; when these tokens and facts and experi- 
ences are yours to have and to hold, you will be in 
closest relations, in vital sympathetic touch with 
Spiritualism and its true believers and ministers, on 
earth and in heaven ! 


i8o 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


CHAPTER XXL 

SEEKING A SIGN. 

And c^l ye on the name of your gods, and I will 
call on the name of the Lord ; and the God that 
answereth by fire, let him be God . — Prophet Elijah. 

And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I 
know this 1 for I am an old man, and my wife well 
stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto 
him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; 
and I was sent to speak unto thee, and to bring thee 
these good tidings. And behold, thou shalt be silent 
and not able to speak, until the day that these things 
shall come to pass, because thou believedst not my 
words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. 

And it came to pass, on the eighth day, that they 
came to circumcise the child ; and they would have 
called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. 

And his mother answered and said, Not so ; but he 
shall be called John. .... 

And they made signs to his father, what he would 
have him called. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. l8i 

And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying. 
His name is John. And they marvelled all. 

And his mouth was opened immediately, and his 
tongue loosed, and he spake, blessing God. — Luke, 
ch. i. 


If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer 
of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder. 

And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he 
spake unto thee, saying. Let us go after other gods, 
which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. 

Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that 
prophet, or that dreamer of dreams : for the Lord your 
God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord 
your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 
— Deut. ch. xiii. 


And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under 
an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto 
Joash the Abi-ezrite : and his son Gideon thrashed 
wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Mid- 
ianites. 

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and 
said unto him. The Lord is with thee, thou mighty 
man of valour. 

And Gideon said unto him. Oh my Lord, if the 
Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us ? 
and where be all his miracles which our fathers told 


t82 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


US of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from 
Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and 
delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. 

And the Lord looked upon him, and said. Go in 
this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the 
hands of the Midianites : have I not sent thee ? 

And he said unto him. Oh my Lord, wherewith 
shall I save Israel ? behold, my family is poor in 
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father s house. 

And he said unto him. If now I have found grace 
in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest 
with me. 

Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto 
thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before 
thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come 
again. 

And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and 
unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour : the flesh he 
put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and 
brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented 
it. 

And the angel of God said unto him, Take the 
flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon 
this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. 

Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the 
staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and 
the unleavened cakes ; and there rose up fire out of 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 183 

the rock, and consumed the flesh, and the unleavened 
cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord departed out of 
his sight. — -Judges, ch. vi. 


The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and 
tempting, desired him that he would show them a 
sign from heaven. 

He answered and said unto them. When it is even- 
ing, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. 
And in the morning. It will be foul weather to-day; 
for the sky is red and lowering. O, ye hypocrites, ye 
can discern the face of the sky ; but can ye not dis- 
cern the signs of the times .? — Jesus. 


Brethren, be not children in mind : howbeit in 
malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. 

In the law it is written, By men of strange tongues 
and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this 
people ; and not even thus will they hear me, saith 
the Lord. 

Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that 
believe, but to the unbelieving : hut prophesying is 
for a sign, not to the unbelieving , hut to them that believe. 

If therefore the whole church be assembled to- 
gether, and all speak with tongues, and there come 
in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say 
that ye are mad ? 

And if all prophesy, and there come in one un- 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


184 

believing or unlearned, he is convicted by all, he is 
judged by all : /he secrets of his heart are made man- 
ifest : and so he will fall down on his face and wor- 
ship God, declaring that God is in you . — Paul i. Cor. 
xiv. 20-25. 

New York, April 25, (1891.) 

The Psychical Investigation Society of which the 
Rev. Dr. Heber Newton, of this city, and the Rev. 
Minot Savage, of Boston, are the leading lights, has 
already attained the proportions of a considerable 
movement. 

As thS result of much preliminary experimentation 
and discussion, the society has decided on the con- 
struction of a novel machine to test indubitably 
spiritualistic evidences of the genuineness of the 
medium manifestation. 

This machine is now building in a Pittsburg shop, 
said to be under the personal supervision of Mr. 
Andrew Carnegie. 

It is called a “ psych ogra,ph,’' and is to be made 
entirely of steel, in the shape of a small table, two 
feet square, and mounted on steep legs, eighteen 
inches high. A movable slide, about three inches 
wide and running the entire length of the table, will 
form part of its top near the centre. 

The slide will move on reversible cogs, connecting 
with a sort of circular type-writer arranged under the 
top of the table, which, in revolving, prints on an 


AATGELS^ VISITS. 


185 

endless tape, letters touched by the stopping and 
starting of the movable slide. The idea is that with 
this machine a slate-writing medium or trance me- 
dium can be thoroughly tested, as the letter key or 
the revolving type-writer will not be visible. He 
can put his hand on the movable slide and it will be 
moved by psychic force, and all a spirit operating 
through the medium will have to do, in order to write 
intelligent communications, will be to make the slide 
stop over the invisible letter it wants to print. — Phil. 
Press. 


The wonders stand confessed. 

False prophets have been caught in their own wiles, 
false diviners have been exposed, false mediums have 
been brought to shame and confusion, and false 
priests have been unfrocked. 

But the true still live, still work wonders, still non- 
plus the skeptical age, and still baffle the ingenuity 
of the evil and the wise. 

“Spiritual things are (still) spiritually discerned,” 
and not otherwise, and the wisdom of men is foolish- 
ness in the sight of God. 

Yet, the latest modern method of catching and 
holding the angel is a vast improvement upon the 
old. 

The new devices for testing spirit presence and 


86 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


spirit power, does not bear so hard upon those 
through whose organism these signs and wonders 
are wrought, as formerly. The stake, the faggot, and 
the prison, do not accompany the modern investiga- 
tor, and the complex arts of the Inquisition are not 
brought to bear upon the helpless victims of inspira- 
tion. This is a great advance, for which we are duly 
thankful. 

Whether our thanks are due to Christian civiliza- 
tion, or to the quickened universal conscience, or to 
the awful, nameless power that makes itself felt in 
this new age, is a question not to be discussed here. 

What a mercy it would have been if the Scribes 
and Pharisees in the days of the Christ, had been 
guided by the light of modern science, in making up 
their judgment against the meek and lowly Nazarene ! 

The most solemn tragedy of any age, with its 
scourgings, its thorns, its Calvary, would not have 
been perpetrated, and the world would be without 
the pious or impious deductions therefrom. 

The long roll of martyrs for the truth — the very 
truth in hand — would not enrich the sanguinary liter- 
ature of the ages, but there would probably be found 
compensations in freer intercourse and more perfect 
concord between all worlds, and between angels and 
men. 

Fire, dungeon, banishment, hemlock and bloody 
crosses, have not served to utterly break down 


ANGELS' VISITS. 187 

the invisible ways and lines along which angels 
and men have commingled. 

And so, they have been abolished by common 
consent, and the new method, the scientific pro- 
cedure, by material indicators and deft machinery, 
is to demonstrate that there are no such ways, and 
cannot be, and no such comminglings ! 

The “psychograph,” with its ingenious mechanism 
and “its reversible cogs,” will either catch the angel’s 
finger, or frighten him away. It will be a new school 
for the spirits, who, with swift, free, noiseless step, 
are wont to thread the ways of human suffering to 
lessen it by their sympathy, and, as Harriet Beecher 
Stowe sings, are content to 

“Watch us still. 

Press nearer to our side ; 

Into our thoughts, into our prayers. 

With gentle helping glide.” 

They must even prove their right and power to do 
so, by this new church registering machine, or else 
endure the doubts and slanders of the unbelieving 
few. 

But I am admonished that I may do grave injustice 
to the excellent brethren who have undertaken this 
new departure in spiritual demonstration ; that the 
object is not to obstruct genuine spirit intercourse, 
but only to catch the designing, fraudulent medium. 

Go, and let be. 


i88 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


It seems, upon closer examination, that there is 
also another meaning to all this, if it be true, and, 
as some divine, a better one, namely, the obtaining 
of a self-registering demonstration of spirit manifesta- 
tion by a physical contrivance, as a confirmation of 
the nascent faith and conviction of these most worthy 
Christian, latter-day Thomases. 

Already have they, like Nicodemus of old, been, by 
night, perhaps, to question the spirits, and to test the 
gifts and proofs of mediumship. 

They are not children, but men ; good men, true 
men, learned men, Christian men. But they have also 
outgrown the swaddling bands of dogma and of the 
letter of creeds, and have tasted somewhat of the 
liberty of the true sons of God. 

They do not lack faith, nor courage, either. They 
desire to' test the ground, to try the spirits, as Paul 
exhorts. 

They have come where the ways part. 

If they are true to their convictions, as doubtless 
they will be, they must pursue this light that has so 
strangely begun to shine upon them, and encourage 
this new hope which so strangely warms their hearts, 
and to do so will inevitably bring upon them the con- 
demnation of the chief priests and the Pharisees. 
But what of that ? 

More are they who are for us, if you include God 
and his angels, than all that can be against us. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 189 

These brethren have already learned that revelations 
did not cease eighteen hundred years ago. 

They have learned, an’d tentatively teach, that the 
Christ did not come to wash out human crimes with 
blood ; nor to appease infinite anger with finite woes ; 
nor to establish a code of ceremonials by which a 
pariah might become a Brahman. 

They know that the mission of the Christ of the 
first century of our era is the same as that of the 
Christ power and revelation of Spiritualism in the 
nineteenth, and that it is not to teach eternal, 
unchangeable conditions and discriminations ; not 
to declare a day of vengeance for the special exhibition 
of the wrath of God against any of his creatures. But 
it is to break all barriers down between the human 
eyes and the light of God. To destroy with the 
breath of his truth the festering evils of humanity, and 
usher in the era of jubilee — the era of liberty in the 
power of the Spirit, and in the life of humanity, in 
which all evil shall be outgrown, all sorrows out- 
lived, all weakness born into strength ; in which all 
error of heart and head shall yield to the light of 
reason sanctified, and the truth that frees ; and all 
questions shall be answered in the affirmative of all 
goodness, progress, and the plenitude of the best and 
the fittest. 

Bring on the psychograph, brethren, and let the 
first spirit who will, record his acceptance of your 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


190 

challenge ; but lift up your eyes, and open your ears, 
and your hearts, and you shall see and hear, and feel, 
the greater confirmations of the divinity of that con- 
sciousness which you already realize, and which 
enters you within the veil. 

Thomas, as you know, was a little skeptical, and 
even doubted his brethren, when they joyfully told 
him that they had seen the Lord. 

He gravely shook his head, as if to express a doubt 
of the sanity of his friends ; yet he hoped it was true, 
that Mary and Peter had declared. He was true to 
himself, was Thomas, and, at last, he declared his 
inability to believe the good news. 

It was too good to be true to his exacting, practical 
mind. 

But if he could see, feel, touch with his hands, the 
body of the restored Christ ; if the spirit would 
materialize before him, bearing all the marks of its 
marred and lacerated physical body, so lately 
crucified to death, to his clear view ; and if the 
wounds were yet fresh and sensitive to the touch — 
his touch — so that he could put his finger into the 
nail prints, and thrust his hand into the gaping side — 
he would believe and not before. 

Oh, Thomas, it seems a cruel test, but then you 
knew nothing of science, nor of a psychograph ! 

Well, the occasion came, and it always does, and 
will, come. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


igi 

The Christ appeared among the faithful few, the 
door of the room being shut, and doubtless barred, 
for fear of violent interruptions. Thomas was within. 

The dear Christ came, and you know the rest, dear 
brethren, and how Thomas, now that his last doubt 
was swept away, fell at the feet of his dear Lord. 

And, brethren, pardon me, if I ask you to devoutly 
(not scientifically) consider the brave comment of the 
long-suffering Master, as he raised his marked hands 
toward Thomas: — ''■Because thou hast seen me, 
Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have 
not seen andye^ have believed. ” 


102 


ANGELS^ VISITS 


CHAPTER XXII. 

RESURRECTION. 

Resurrection is the entrance into embodied exist- 
ence, after death, of the spirit to which God has given 
the power of building for itself the spiritual body. 
The resurrection, in the Christian and ideal sense of 
the word, is the entrance of the Christly spirit, with 
that power, into an embodied existence which is life 
indeed.” So far as present endeavor can bring it to 
pass that ‘'Christ is formed within” us as “the hope 
of glory” {Gal. 4. 19 ; Col. i. 27.), so far the resur 
rection is a thing of the present determination, and, 
potentially, of present attainment. 

This seems to be the thought which underlies 
Paul’s expressions in his letter to the Philippians (3. 
1 1-12.) 

According to this answer, the essential thing in the 
resurrection is the spirit^ with its character and its 
corresponding capacity and power. The body is not 
left out, but is the product of the spirit’s life. The 
spirit is not left without a body in a middle state of 
arrested development, but unfolds the constructive 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


m 

power of its life, without arrest, in forming its own 
body. No universal miracle is demanded to form 
new bodies on the instant by the million million. 

Instead of a physical operation from without, a 
spiritual growth from within builds the habitation and 
organ of each spirit, according to the endeavor of 
each in obedience to the laws of vital development in 
spiritual health. — Rev. J. M. Whiton, Ph. D., on the 
Gospel of the Resurrection. 

The above very suggestive presentation of the 
Christian doctrine of the resurrection by a prominent 
Christian minister, was read by Comfort Miller to 
Brother Caleb during a very interesting discussion of 
what spiritualism taught on the subject — if anything 
at all. 

Brother Caleb, like many another good man, 
seemed to be laboring under the impression that spirit- 
ualism, at best, was a disjointed sort of thing, a kind 
of vagabond in doctrine and truth, an uneasy, desti- 
tute, and not over-scrupulous tramp. One must make 
allowance for prejudices in a truly religious country, 
where a fixed set of doctrines has been taught from 
the beginning, in catechism, in school, and by the 
pulpit. 

The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, held 
and taught by the church, although having probably no 
root nor ground in the real teachings of Jesus, seems to 
be very firmly held bv our friend Caleb, and in a way 

13 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


194 

to lead one to infer that it is somehow, a most essen- 
tial doctrine to hold. 

He could not accept Rev. Mr. Whiton’s views at 
all, but strenuously adhered to the cold, barren, 
ghastly doctrine of the resurrection of the physical 
body, at a time appointed. 

Yet he was anxious to hear what a Spiritualist could 
say on the subject, and I honor him for that. Be- 
lieving, as I do, that Comfort is greatly blessed as a 
medium, and knowing him to be often controlled by 
very advanced spirits, I was more than glad to see 
that peculiar light play over his face, which is to me 
a sure indication that the inspiring spirit is ready to 
speak, if not with authority to all ears, with persua- 
sive and reasonable utterance. 

Comfort said that Spiritualists did not think much 
of the word resurrection, and never use it in the sense 
of the dead rising — as the church teaches. 

To be sure, resurrection is rising up, but is of the 
life, the spirit, from the mortal body, to occupy it no 
more forever. 

It is not something to be expected at some far-off 
day ; not an event of impenetrable mystery hidden 
in the keeping of Infinite Wisdom, — but a law of 
life. 

It is, truly considered, the emergence of the spirit out 
of the mortal and the physical,— its liberation, and 
continuance at the death of the body which drops into 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


195 

decay and undergoes dissolution. This is not my 
surmise but the testimony of spirits. 

There is no middle ground or state between the 
death, or falling away of the body, and the life’s rising. 
There is no hesitancy ; no halting, as of weakness or 
interruption ; no sense of loss in consciousness — but 
on the contrary, the mighty, joyous, realization of 
liberty and continuity. 

The body dies ? 

Dying is a process. 

The physical form may be racked with pain ; its tor- 
ture may be extremely exquisite, — but these are only 
the slow unwindings of mortal bands for the unfetter- 
ing of the soul. 

When the last pang is felt there is liberation — an 
escape — a soul is born into a higher theatre of life in 
immediate resurrection. 

Is this speculation 

The voice of the spirit world says — No ! 

This is what succeeds death as one breath follows 
another. 

There is no border realm to cross. 

The life does not pause, does not loiter, it may 
glance back in its outward bound. It may turn its 
gaze backward with unspeakable pity for those who 
rnourn over the empty casket, and would comfort 
them with words of greeting. 


196 ANGELS' VISITS. 

But for our ignorance, and blundering superstition, 
it could always do so. 

What a comfort that would be ! 

What a triumph awaits us here, when, by learning 
the truth and living it, the lips of clay shall no Sooner 
be silenced by the stroke of death, than the voice of 
the freed spirit shall speak cheerful and triumphant 
words to those who no longer mourn but rejoice — as 
they bury that which is dead ! 

And not only so, but the resurrected life shall 
manifest itself in its new and glorious body to the 
eyes that are prepared to see it. 

This is what Jesus did for forty days after the death 
of his body, at various times, in different places, and 
to all his friends and disciples. 

Do you believe it .? 

The New Testament tells you so. 

In the garden, on the memorable third day, did 
Mary see him .? 

On the road to Emmaus were two of the brethren 
joined by a stranger as they walked and were sad.? 

They were thinking and speaking of Mary’s won- 
derful declaration, and the blessed words of reassur- 
ing greeting which the materialized Master had sent 
to them. 

The stranger was gifted, was entertaining, was 
enchanting, — as he walked in their midst, and they 
knew him not. 


ANGELSr VISITS. 1 97 

On reaching their destination, they offered him hos- 
pitality, which upon insistence he accepted, and they 
sat down to meat. As he brake the bread, as he had 
often done before with them, their eyes were opened, 
and they knew him. It was Jesus. As soon as they 
knew him he vanished away. 

If you are a Christian you believe this — but you 
fortify yourself by attributing it to the proper Divinity 
inhering in him as a person in the Godhead, by which 
as God, he suspended Natural law. 

Spiritualism teaches, and demonstrates, that it was 
an instance of materialization and dematerialization in 
strict accordance with natural law. 

Pray do not be shocked — and do not refuse to 
think that possible in harmony with law, which you 
believe, or think you do, contrary to law. 

It is easier to harmonize the manifestation of Jesus 
in the materialized form to his diciples, than it is to 
formulate one single proof of his Godhead. 

James Freeman Clarke, a scholarly and devout 
Minister of the Unitarian faith, who but recently 
passed into the higher life, regarded the “resurrection 
of Jesus as an example of a universal law,” and his 
visible appearance as illustrating the conditions under 
which the departed may manifest themselves in a 
“ spiritual body,” his real body having been removed 
by the soldiers. 

We have here, says Joseph Henry Allen, lecturer 


198 ANGELS^ VISITS. 

on Ecclesiastical history in Harvard University, appar- 
ently, the same phenomenon as the ‘ ‘ materializations” 
of modern Spiritualism; since “a universal law,” 
cannot, of course, be inferred from a single disputed 
example.* 

Jesus was seen after his declared resurrection, some 
ten times, in different circumstances, but in his 
spiritual body, for he appeared and disappeared in an 
instant of time. 

He mingled lovingly and freely with his friends, 
and confirmed to them the great lessons which he had 
taught them before. But the chief lesson taught 
them, is the lesson that Spiritualism alone teaches and 
emphasizes with abundant demonstration, to-day ; 
the continuance of life, and the right and power to 
return to this sphere of doubt and tears, to assure us 
of the fact, after the physical body has ceased to be, 
as such. 

What other great truth is declared by the New 
Testament record of the Christ’s return, if this be 
denied.? What need of demonstrating the Christ 
power over death if it has, and can have, no practical 
relation to us .? 

If one will say that all this is to prove his proper 
divinity and Godhead, and to confirm Christian faith 
in him as the Saviour and helper of mankind, we say, 
let it be so to you, but it must be seen, that the larger 
* Our Liberal Movement in Theology, p. 141. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


199 

view which spiritualism reveals and supports with 
abundant illustration to those who will seek the con- 
ditions to receive it, comes home in a glorious com- 
fortable way of its own, to every stricken and bereaved 
heart. 

Peter and his companions, returning from the 
vision of the empty tomb, exultingly exclaimed — * ‘ We 
have seen the Lord,” although but three days before 
he had been cruelly put to death on the cross. 

So come, daily, thousands of happy mothers, chil- 
dren, and friends, from meeting places with their loved 
ones, who, from the inner glory and rest, return to 
comfort them that mourn. They bear in their con- 
sciousness proof of their happy words, that not only 
have they heard from the dear ones yonder, but have 
seen them, felt them, and know, by ail the signs that 
love and sense can demand, that it is even so. 

How does this truth (granting it to be a truth) affect 
their lives ? 

How would it affect yours ? 


After a few minutes of song, and some very appre- 
ciative remarks from Brother Caleb, in which he ex- 
pressed the greatest anxiety to follow the true light 
which lighteth every man, Mary Van Elt became 
entranced and in that condition delivered the follow- 
ing discourse, her manner being in perfect keeping 


200 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


with the interesting truths uttered. I am indebted to 
Doctor Graeme for the very full and exact report. 

Progress and Mediumship. 

The leaven worketh, and will work. Impatience 
is not zeal, and observation misleads often the very 
wisest, for appearances deceive. 

Progress is not effervescent, but steady movement 
toward the better. Every moment ground is covered, 
and there is no retrogression. The unity of spirit 
preserves Peace. You, who have passed out of error’s 
bondage into enlargement, can see, if you will, the 
expanding condition and the widening horizon in the 
course of your advance. 

The clash of opinions need not disturb yourserenity. 

The clouds shall gather beneath you — above is the 
light — and around you are its children and its gifts. 

Would you go back into the bondage of the world.? 
Not you, since freedom hath lessoned your souls, and 
you have tasted of the wine of life. Content yourselves 
with your daily findings, for appreciation of to-day’s 
lessons and gifts is the chief preparation for to-mor- 
row’s advances. 

Every step is on holy ground : tread reverently, 
therefore, lest ye defile the path. 

Duty IS enjoyable when love prompts the doing 
of it. 


ANGELS’’ VISITS. 


201 


To the fretful ones, let this word come : You but 
magnify difficulties when you assail them in a fretful 
temper. 

Th^y are minimized and removed by resolute gaze 
and persistent endeavor to pass on. 

The mountain is less rugged and steep to the 
climber, and the most appalling difficulty melts be- 
neath the feet of the patient plodder on. 

There are no obstacles in the path of progress, 
and no small events. Your life is greater than all else, 
and the nobleness of your purpose is among the 
strongest influences in the world. Neither should you 
chafe and fret, because evil doers abound. 

What else can you expect, where Ignorance and its 
first-born, Superstition, hold mastery over the masses. 
You should cultivate the emotion of commiseration, 
and the helping spirit. They are not less your 
brothers and sisters whose lives are floundering in the 
slums of darkness, and whose voices are choked with 
the fire-damp of obsession. 

Pity them ; care for them ; treat them considerately, 
for the jewel of life is there, and you are to find it, 
and brighten its consciousness. 

You should be an Angel of Resurrection in the 
Moral and Spiritual home of the dead. Fret not, but 
speak the sweet, hopeful words of the life that is and 
shall be. 

Point upward and outward, and light shall flash 


202 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


from your finger-tips, and power shall generate from 
your presence. 

The true medium stands between, and connects 
twain : of himself or herself, nothing may be accom- 
plished. 

The first qualification of genuine mediumship is 
self-loss. 

In this condition of absolute passivity, the worlds 
meet, and the open door is established. 

To lose oneself may not mean to lose conscious- 
ness, nor purpose, nor any attribute of essential per- 
sonality, but it is to surrender all to the whelming 
Presence. 

Every barrier is let down ; every wish is extin- 
guished ; every personal desire is cut off — surrendered 
— and the entire being is bequeathed to the incoming 
powers. 

The tongue forgets its native speech, and the per- 
ceptive faculties close earthward and open spiritward 
toward the boundless universe of souls. 

The vision is spiritualized, and is spiritual. Dead 
to physical things the medium is now the pliant in- 
strument of spirit. If the old consciousness remain 
it is reinforced and held in thrall by the new. 

No law is broken, and no supernatural event 
occurs. 

The law which imposes trance conditions upon the 
physical also gives freedom to the spiritual. It is 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


203 

one power, but exerts its prerogatives in both states at 
once. 

“ Other tongues” may now speak, as “the spirit 
gives utterance.” 

The demands of the truth will govern in these 
cases. The uneducated medium now utters burning 
words, or chops logic with the learned. 

The prosaic, in the normal state, is now the pro- 
found philosopher, the gentle poet, the impassioned 
orator, or the tender minstrel. The ancient historian 
tells his story ; the long forgotten teacher repeats his 
problems ; and the poet of many centuries, articulates 
anew his beautiful refrain. 

A gaping skeptic cries out : — 

“ How can these things be 

Be thankful that they are, and know that their 
wherefores lie in the same bed with the sources of the 
mountains and the heaving seas. 

Why am I a Spiritualist ? 

Because I am a spirit. 

Shall I speak of the benefits of spiritual truth thus 
received ? 

Much depends upon whose ears it falls, and its 
prevailing tint. 

Truth is sometimes spoiled in its expression, and it 
loses its takingness and grace in transit from one to 
another. One must seek to possess the teaching apt- 
aess to be a good medium — a transferrer of the truth. 


204 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Mediums who embody the sweet lessons we teach ; 
who realize in themselves, apart from their gifts and 
condition of mediumship, the power and blessedness 
of the spiritualizing doctrines, are the great leaders 
and' defenders of the cause. The reason why so 
many mediums lose their personal identity under 
control, is to be found in the fact (not necessarily to 
their discredit) that they cannot, or have not yet 
mastered for themselves and incorporated the great 
truths which are unfolded through them. 

They are instruments, but instruments only, and do 
not always comprehend and realize the truths them- 
selves. But they should aspire to do so, and thus 
make themselves more powerful as teachers and 
instruments, for then, to the truth, as such, they add 
the important weight of their own experience. 

The highest phase of mediumship is a condition, 
through consecration, of perfect openness to both 
worlds, without the mediation of trance conditions. 

To hear and repeat. 

To see and describe. 

To feel and impart. 

To sense and interpret. 

Absolutely filled, thrilled, mastered and dominated 
in every part, by the Spirit of the truth, being the 
very embodiment of affirmativeness. 


Ai\ GELS' VJSITS. 


2 OS 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

CELESTE — A SPIRIT STORY-TELLER. 

Brother Caleb’s week was drawing to a close, and 
on the morrow he would bid us good-bye for a season. 
We were not a little sad at the prospect as we gathered 
in our bright little parlor to spend, for some time at 
least, our last evening together. 

I had observed a marked change in Caleb. It was 
plain enough that he had been deeply exercised in 
mind, and, while he did not declare his faith in the 
philosophy of spiritualism, as it had been unfolded by 
Comfort Miller and the guides of Mary Van Elt, all 
could see that a strong bias had set in, and, knowing 
Caleb as I did, I felt no doubt of his gradual and ulti- 
mate entire acceptance of the truth. 

His increasing interest was beautiful to see, and his 
words and manner were full of a cheerfulness quite 
new to him. 

New light had dawned for him, and it was plain 
enough that life was growing sweeter and dearer. 
How could it be otherwise He had become greatly 
interested in Mary Van Elt, and did not hesitate to 


2o6 


AJVGELS’ VISITS. 


express his wonder at the marvellous gifts she pos- 
sessed, and quite conceded that her inspirations were 
worthy of any angel. 

During our many conversations, it was once ob- 
jected to spiritualism that the messages or inspirations 
of its mediurrls were chiefly of a trivial, if not frivo- 
lous nature, hardly reaching, in many instances, the 
plane of common sense, much more of refined truth. 
Brother Caleb urged this objection as one of the popu- 
lar arguments against the genuineness of the spirit- 
control claimed. But what had fallen from Mary Van 
Elt s lips, and what had been uttered by Comfort 
Miller, entirely disabused his mind of this prejudice. 

I think the lesson of the evening s circle I am now 
to record, swept away the last vestige of doubt or 
prejudice lingering in Brother Caleb s mind on more 
points than one. 

After several delightful songs, we composed our- 
selves to hear what the spirits might say to us, 
either through Comfort or Mary, or through both. 
We had not long to wait. 

Mary’s face was the object of all our eyes as she 
arose, and began to speak : 

I live for the living who love me, i • 

I watch by the dying, who die ; : 

For the sinful and sorrowing ’round me, 

Whose life is a questioning cry. 

I lead them in paths toward morning, 

Supplant with my faith, their fears ; 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


207 


I clothe them with heaven’s adorning, 

Exchanging them smiles foi- tears ! 

And my Angels hold open the gates of dawn, 

And welcome them into tlie golden morn. 

Who am I ? 

I am called Celeste. 

I am a very busy spirit, and I love to wander far 
and wide. I would borrow any angel’s wings — if 
angels had wings — to bear me farthest away with their 
stout sweeps ; away, beyond the light of the farthest 
star that shines in the constellation of Orion. 

But I do not fly if I am a spirit ; I just travel on the 
substantial ways of thought, and never pass a 
wayside nook until I have explored its nethermost 
recesses. I must be very human, because I love to 
visit human habitations, and a baby’s face is the 
prettiest thing I ever look upon. Some poets have 
bravely and vaguely sung, after their manner, about 
“ Looking on the face of God.” 

Well, if I were on earth, like you, I would be content 
to look upon the face of a little child nestling in its 
mother’s bosom amid the nourishing ministries of a 
mother’s love, and then I think I should lose all desire 
to see the face of God. God is a great conceit — but 
the violet eyes, and primrose face (is it primrose?) 
of a human child, are realities, and mighty ones, too. 

In all worlds little children rule. 

Before they utter meaningful words, they sway the 


2o8 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


sceptre of dominion. I have seen a whole community 
held breathless at a child’s cry. I have seen ten 
thousand grown people wringing their hands in 
anguish, because a little child was in pain. 

Children are indeed angels, but they become much 
deformed as they grow up, in the human world. 

It is because the world is not made congenial to 
them, and the simplicity of childhood is educated into 
duplicity until, to be happy again, one must become 
as a little child. 

I had such an adventure, only but now ! I saw an 
aged man resting under a grand old yew tree in a 
churchyard. He was bowed low, and his speech 
was a groan. I spoke him a thought in a ray of sun- 
shine as I approached, and it made him start with 
seeming fright. 

He bemoaned his sad aloneness in the world, and 
questioned Heaven why he was bereft of all his kith 
and kin. Heaven never answered him a word — but 
/did, although my name is Celeste, and not heaven. 
I showed him faces in the sunlight, until his own face 
shone with rapture and delight. They were the faces 
of his loved ones, whose absence he had been be- 
moaning under the yew. Oh, how I did revel in his 

joy- 

I was happier than his own dear ones, because I 
was the occasion, in a way, of recalling them back to 
him again. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


209 

Well, what do you suppose he did after waking out 
oi the trance, and the faces could no longer be seen ? 

Why he just bowed his head and wept, and then 
thanked Heaven for so many sweet conceits and 
dreams ! 

There’s gratitude for you ! 

It wasn’t heaven at all, but I, Celeste, who provoked 
the trance and held the sunny mist in which the faces 
appeared. Never mind, I don’t hunger for thanks. 

The food of angels is the good they do, and I am 
resolved to grow up large and powerful, perhaps 
beautiful, like the seven rayed star. 

If I were a poet I wouldn’t sing the praises of any 
name, I would just make all the world forget names 
in deeds done out of the love of doing them just. 

Did I say you can’t live on praise? No, ’twas 
thanks. Well, it is nearly the same thing, after all. 

Stop a moment, I will modify my expression, I will 
revise my philosophy a little, and show you how 
many people were kept from want by a good man's 
thanks. This was the way of it. 

The Prince and the Punky Wallah. 

An age and a half ago, there lived a Prince in the 
farther India, and his favourite son was rescued from 
a horrible fate by a poor Sudra — a mere Punky 
Wallah — who sacrificed his own life for the young 

14 


210 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Prince, upon whom, unawares, a great tiger was 
stealthily approaching. 

Now, it was a brave thing for the Punky Wallah 
to give his life for the child of royalty, for life is 
sweet, even to an abject Sudra. Well, the great 
Prince was moved deep in his heart at this uttermost 
expression of devotion of a menial, and he said these 
words to the assembled tribes and peoples in the 
grand palace where he dwelt, at the confluence of 
sacred rivers. 

“ Words are cold breath, and the thanks of words 
become the attenuated nothings of the air ; but I will 
express my thanks to this poor Punky Wallah in a 
substantial way — and obtain the three-fold benefit.” 

And a great approval went up from all the people. 

So the mighty Prince caused one hundred wells to 
be dug in the most desert places, in the Deccan 
country, and one hundred mango groves to be planted 
around these wells, so that forever after the poor of 
that country, and all weary pilgrims passing through, 
should find cooling water, and luscious fruit in time of 
famine and distress. 

In all the years since, thousands of helpless people, 
not alone Sudras, but all classes, have feasted upon 
the thanks of that puissant Prince. Therefore, I say, 
we may live on thanks, especially if they are in the 
form of fruits and cooling waters. 

I hope you like this story, for I think it quite 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


2II 


delightful and when I heard it, I clapped my hands 
for joy. 


Yes indeed, Mr. Comfortable Miller, I am quite a 
story teller, and if I am, my stories are true, for I 
gather them from the fields of my life and work, as I 
pass along, doing my part. 

To do one’s part is as great a thing here as with 
mortals, only our methods and appliances may be 
different- 

Not very different either, because most difficulties 
everywhere, in all worlds, and under all conditions, 
are spiritual, or belong in one or many ways, to 
the spiritual life. What a breeder of trouble is im- 
agination. Some people suffer from diseased or ill- 
developed imagination, and oh, what tortures their 
fancy creates for them. I tell you there are ten fancied 
troubles to one genuine one, and this is true every- 
where. Often the fancied is more troublesome than 
the real. But what will you } 

One must minister to the well, who fancy that they 
are sick, as well as to the sick sick. 

I will now tell you of a spirit I but shortly since 
tried to help. 

Poor Mr. Ah Me. 

He sat amid shadows and looked downward as 
though his eyes and perceiving powers were fixed that 


212 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


way. When I accosted him he did not even acknowl- 
edge my salute, and when I touched his bowed head, 
he gave a solemn groan which said, — “Ah me ! Ah 
me ! Ah me ! ” as though mournfully apostrophizing 
himself. Poor Mr. Ah Me. 

I spoke cheerfully, perhaps flippantly, to him when 
I said : — 

“ Friend, why dost thou sit outside thyself in such 
fashion, and ape the night owl with thy dull moan ? ” 

My speech brought forth no reply. But I resolved 
to persevere, so I improvised a pleasing song, and soon 
had the mellow light of music floating all about. 
There’s music in light, and it is, as you must know, 
contagious, and thought finds its mate, and believe 
me, we had a music-meet, just there. 

Soft words break spear points, and music melts the 
iron-clad life — and directly there was diffused a genius 
of health through that poor Mr. Ah Me’s trouble-giving 
imagination. 

He raised his head, looked thoughtfully into my 
face ; changed his countenance ; converted his con- 
dition, and, would you think it, joined in the song ! 
His voice was cracked and out of tune for want of 
practice, but what would you ? 

The waters clarify more and more, the longer they 
flow on over the pebbles, and a dull, croaking voice 
takes on the tone of melody after awhile, if it will but 
essay to sing. All sounds are musical if they are made 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


213 

with goodwill, and so, very soon, you must know, 
my patient ascended the scale of effort, until the 
gamut of good hope and enthusiasm was mastered 
quite. I left him piping away like an oriole welcom- 
ing the spring — and went on my way. 


I have heard of obsessed persons being restored to 
the normal state by the sweet ministry of music. 

I believe it too, but, hark you, if another’s singing 
may accomplish so much, what may you not expect 
when the victim sings. It is the beginning of libera- 
tion to him. 

But some one says — “I can’t sing.” No.? You 
mean, that you cannot turn a tune melodiously.? 

Well, what would you .? 

Cannot people think melodiously .? 

To set your thoughts agoing melodiously — that is 
highest harmony, fine, grand, spiritual singing. 

Great songs are those that are never sung — they are 
thought, just. 

If I sing you a song — you shall think one for me. 

Is it a bargain .? Good, and I am sure you will 
perform your part, otherwise the point of my poor 
story would be lost, and you surely would not distress 
me thus. 

I will now tell you another story, if you will oblige 
me by listening. 


214 


ANGELS’' VISITS, 


I have had a great delight, for have not I witnessed 
a most dutible and charming reunion of deeds and the 
doer ? I am telling you so. 

It was in this wise : — 

A Heavenly Surprise Party. 

Once, very long ago, a wise man lived in a wild- 
erness, apart from human thoroughfares. 

He retired hence, the better to hold communion with 
nature, and refresh himself with things pure and 
difficult. 

Adulteration is the bane of the w^orld’s prosperity, 
and this wise man betook himself to the outer world, 
beyond the glare and confusion of marts and com- 
munities. He relieved his loneliness by seeking the 
acquaintance of the birds of the air, and the roving 
beasts of the forest. Quite a cordiality resulted, and 
the most confidential relations grew apace. His 
retreat in the deep shades was known to all the high- 
flyers of the air, and to all the prowlers of the wilder- 
ness. The most ferocious creatures put their ears in 
kindly poise whenever they approached him, and 
every bird slackened wing as he passed that way. 

And what think you this wise man did to fill up the 
days and nights ? He became the good physician 
and care-taker of all the creatures round about. If 
a great beast had trodden on a thorn, straightway 
he sought the good friend, who, with skill extracted 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


215 

the thorn and with simple emollients, healed the 
wound. If a bird broke a wing, immediately it 
hopped to the hospitable place of cure and heal- 
ing. Many a wing did this wise man restore its 
flexible grace, and many a bruise did his tender 
care heal and remove. Soon his fame was twittered 
and sung, and shouted and roared far over the plains 
and mountains, until the paths of the wilderness be- 
came highways for the processions of beasts, bringing 
their halt, and sore, and lame, and blind. And all 
found welcome and healing at the hands of this wise 
man. Often the air would be darkened with the mul- 
titudes of winging visitors, twittering their ailments 
in his sympathetic ear. 

Every bird looked upon him as a King-bird, and 
every beast as a King-beast, and all, of every kind, 
revered him as a god. 

Thus he lived his human time, and when his loving 
spirit passed out into larger freedom, there was a 
tremulous feeling in every note of song-bird, and a 
sob of grief in every sound that beasts do make. No 
man prepared the body of this wise man for its burial, 
and the beasts of prey kept watch, side by side, with 
the stately vultures, guarding his mortal remains from 
the touch of the accidental vandal beast or bird, until 
the sun bleached his bones, and then they reverently 
covered them with fresh forest leaves. 

To-day I surprised him holding a great levee of 


2i6 


ANGELS VISITS. 


spirit beasts and birds, the same, and their friends, 
that had shared his benefactions on the earth. They 
were numberless and harmonious. 

They were showing their gratitude in all character- 
istic ways, and made his dwelling-place the Mecca of 
their happy lives. 

I joined my voice with the carols of the birds, and 
added my caress to that of the grateful beasts, that 
touched him on every side. 

It was a most exhilarating exercise, and opened up 
to me the most delicious confirmation of the holy 
doctrine, that deeds of kindness return to the doer 
like the harvest to the sower. 

This is the end of my story, but I think it is all too 
short. Perhaps you think I have drawn upon my 
fancy overmuch, and that to heal the broken wing of 
a little bird is too small an affair to outlive time. But 
my pity bequeaths itself to you in such case, and I 
have the happiness to hope that you will deal ten- 
derly and considerately with the beasts that are dumb 
in speech that man will hear, and toward the birds 
whose little wings bear lives of charming character 
and rarest beauty. 

The number of wise men is increasing, I am happy 
to know, and as our truth becomes the universal 
religion, as it is the universal truth, kindness to 
inferior beings will prevail, and cruelty disappear. 
This also is spiritualism, you know. If you could 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 2 ,^ 

just interpret the gratitude of a bird or beast for an 
act of kindness you wouid be astonished at the depth 
and beauty of it. 

Did you ever look into the eyes of your horse after 
he had received a token of appreciation at your hands ? 
What depth of feeling I What splendid light of 
reciprocal goodwill ! 

I will tell you another story — to answer the ques- 
tion that you (Brother Caleb) but now asked, about the 

Occupations of HeaveUy 

if you mean by heaven, the spirit-world. One of the 
most delightful occupations is the one that I am now 
trying to pursue — with the aid of this dear lady. It 
is very much here with us as it is with you, and the 
happiness of heaven is the result of goodness and 
doing good, just as it is on the earth. 

No more here than with you, do people hedge 
themselves in, and enjoy heaven and development, 
alone. 

Always there are sharers and sharers, and nothing 
is lost. 

There are those who enter in and commune with 
the highest and best ; and then there are those who 
linger on the porticoes, loiter in the ways, rest under 
the shades, or bathe in delicious appreciation in the 
all-encircling light of God’s love. 


2i8 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


So, to the empty the full-handed distribute ; to the 
poor the rich impart ; to the patient, waiting ones, 
those who return from the leas, divide ; and so it 
comes about, that all who will, may share what each 
possesses or acquires. 

This is a sort of general rule which asserts itself 
like custom, and only the ill-developed ever think of 
evading it. You know, next to the happiness of 
having, is that of imparting to others. One gives 
what he has, and the costlier the gift, the intenser the 
pleasure of bestowing. In heaven it is just true, as 
it is on earth, the most beautiful, bountiful, most 
exalted lives, are always those who have had costly 
developments — I mean who have most freely be- 
stowed themselves for others. 

But I am making a preachment, instead of telling a 
story. 

But what would you**? thoughts suffer for the utter- 
ance as children cry at their failure to make their 
wants known, and, while mine are neither new nor 
striking, it gives me happiness to know that they 
comport with yours. 

For reasons that I need not now explain, I have a 
large freedom, and am permitted to gather the sweet 
fruits of fellowship and beneficence in many fields, 
and, from points of advantage, study the lessons of 
duty and reward in the fruition of many lives. 

I refer to those who in the mortal life were the 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


C2I9 

saviours and reformers, the leaders and great teachers, 
of their age and race. 

Their harvest does not alone come from the per- 
sonal field, but they have vital shares in the labors, 
triumphs, goodness and glory, of those who, by any 
means, have been lifted up by their word or example, 
or have been quickened by their spirit. 

They are centres of attraction here, as they were, 
in many instances, the unappreciated saviours of 
mankind on the earths Fitness opens all ways, and, 
go where you will in these bright spheres, you will 
meet the perfect, the just, the wise, and the good, 
who are propagating fathers and mothers, as one may 
say, of glorious progeny in things spiritual. Their 
children are those who have learned the law of life 
through their ministries, and whose development 
receives and realizes controlling impetus ^ from their 
teachings and example. Stronger than mortal ties are 
the subtle relationships of thought and spiritual horn- 
ing, and here, in the limitless, these relationships are 
never ignored nor outgrown. So, it came about that, 
as I passed along observantly through a most charm- 
ing scene, I found myself accompanied by an im- 
mense company of joyous spirits, hastening, to ward a 
luminous centre in the distance. 

They were from many spheres, exhibiting marked 
characteristics, yet cohered by a law, and there was a 
family likeness. ; 


220 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


They fell to expressing their delight, and I found 
that they were celebrating the advent of a great life, 
and were on their way to crown it anew with their 
joys and congratulations. 

A more joyous company you could not bring from 
the seven spheres. 

As we entered the ethereal portals of our destina- 
tion, I was filled with wonder and delight at the per- 
fect beauty and exquisite fragrance of the luminous 
place. All words would fail to express the faintest 
reality of the scene. Radiant goodness beamed upon 
all, and everything, and from everything and all. 

Presently I was approached by a companionable 
spirit, whose words flowed like pearly waters from 
embowered fountains. 

‘‘Welcome,’' he exclaimed, “to the festivities of 
this haven.” 

“This, then, is a festive occasion } ” I replied. 

“ In a sense, yes ; because we bring joyous con- 
gratulations to one, who, by perfect devotion, has 
intensified the pleasure of being, and opened new 
avenues of goodness. ” 

''New avenues .? ” I exclaimed. 

“ Why not,” he replied, “since the old last not. or 
are occupied. Our Teacher and Guide, by wise words 
and noble deeds, shows us how quickened faculties 
may exercise themselves, and how increased knowl- 
edge may enlarge usefulness.” 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


221 


“ And your illustrious 'Feacher ? " 

“ Is he who now approaches, amid the acclamations 
of the happy throng-.” 

On turning aboup this scene unfolded : A broad 
pavement as ot crystal appeared, wide and long, ex- 
tending far until lost in light, and down it slowly 
came the Teacher with his immediate attendants, re- 
ceiving, as he passed, the joyous greetings of the 
innumerable company. Music filled the spaces, and 
all means known or conceivable, to express gratitude 
and approval, were employed. 

The Teacher, without confusion, and with the dig- 
nity of conscious goodness, looked benignly into the 
happy faces, and with indescribable expression of 
goodwill showed how fully and heartily he appre- 
ciated the gathering and the greeting. 

Having reached a prominence on which the glorious 
light revealed the very perfection of beauty, the 
Teacher paused, and turned his loving gaze upon us 
all. It was the bestowal of a rich benediction. Each 
one felt that upon him rested the benign countenance 
of the Teacher. All sounds ceased, and only expec- 
tancy hung upon all, like a cloud of providence. 

I think, in all my experience, I never realized as at 
that moment, the awful impatience to hear. 

My soul was filled with unutterable yearning to hear 
the speech of one whose goodness was so radiant, and 
the light of whose thought was so quickening and 


222 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


vocal Will he never begin, was telegraphed from 
eye to eye, and from soul to soul. But the Master of 
Truth knew when the preparation to receive was com- 
pleted* 

The moment of ripeness, of readiness, comes, and 
the teacher and the taught are en-rapport. If truth 
found ’•eadiness of mind as well as openness of ears, 
humanity would unfold with tenfold rapidity and 
thoroughness. 

This also is the work of the Teacher — to make ready 
the mind and the life, to receive the essential lessons. 

Well, the Teacher did begin, and the music of his 
voice filled all the radiance as it flashed far and near, 
and the words of grace and truth fell in richest cadence 
upon all listening ears. 

I will repeat to you what fell on mine : 

‘ ‘ Kindred spirits ; the sweetness of life’s lessons and 
the grandeur of its triumphs are intensified by your 
loving, sympathetic presence. Your unblemished 
greetings say to Faithfulness, — well done ; to Hope, 
— lo ! thy rewards ; to Labor, — take thy rest ; to 
Love, — wear thy crowns; to Truth, — behold thy con- 
quests ; and to the wandering souls in the outlying 
darkness — be of good cheer, for the light comethunto 
you ! 

“Thus do I interpret you, and with fullest reciproca- 
tion do I accept for the Truth’s honor, your exalted 
expressions of fidelity and appreciation. 


AJVGELS’ VISITS. 


223 

“ We are not strangers to one another. We are not 
victors and vanquished on some doubtful issue. We 
are not speculators and timid feelers in some vague 
realm of ideal. 

“We are the children of the Light and of the Truth, 
the testators of the power of our endless life, the 
realizers of the life of the spirit. 

“We have ascended from the elementary of mor- 
tality into the meridian of acquirement and positive 
character, under obedience to the laws of spiritual 
progression. 

“Yonder lie the paths over which we have come, and 
many a bower of resistless beauty incites a reverent 
memory, and many a height recalls deeds of patient 
and persistent valor, and many a morass hangs low 
under the eye that looks back, like a cloud of trouble 
unable to rise. 

“But, the paths of wisdom lead onward still, and the 
fields of fruitful tillage are boundless. The world 
within responds to the world without, and the power 
of individual life will master and occupy all. 

“The feast of life is the longest to which we are in- 
vited, and inspired. Let us to the sweet tasks before 
us, laden with the incorruptible treasures which we 
have already made our own. If I have helped you 
on your way, let me continue to share the happi- 
ness of those who shall be helped in turn by 
you. ” 


224 


AJVGELS' VISITS. 


My words are poverty compared with the real out- 
givings of the Teacher’s soul. 

The music of the voice, the sublime benignity of 
the person, the spiritual glory of the- speaker — are 
not interpretable in words. 

And now may I prophesy to you ? 

When Nature’s laws are thoroughly understood, the 
very light of day — the sunbeam, and the star ray, 
will be vocal with the blessed music of revelation. 

Science will discover that every ray of light is full 
of voice — of sound ; — but spiritual philosophy will 
demonstrate that the sound is intelligent, and the 
voices are Angels’ voices, speaking unto men. 

Already there are those who hear — clairaudient 
mediums, like some of you, and their interpretations 
are doubted by the undeveloped and the unwise. 

But soon the exceptional will become common, 
and Science will declare that Light is vocal, and full of 
talk, and Spiritualism ‘will differentiate the complex sound 
that Science hears, hut cannot understand, and interpret 
the talk in human speech.^ 

*The Sound of a Sunbeam. 

One of the most wonderful discoveries in science that has been 
made within the last year or two is the fact that a beam of light 
produces sound. A beam of sunlight is thrown through a lens on 
a glass vessel that contains lampblack, colored silk or worsted, or 
other substances. A disc having slits or openings put in it is made 
to revolve swiftly in this gleam of light so as to cut it up. thus mak- 
ing alternate flashes of light and shadow. On putting the ear to 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


225 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

LEAVE-TAKING AND LESSONS. 

We were loth to part with Brother Caleb, and I am 
sure his good heart was wrung with desire to prolong 
his stay at the farm. But Brother Caleb is a stalwart 
soldier of duty, and the Macedonian cry from Indian 
River, was stronger than our loving entreaties. So, 
we resolved to put a cheerful face upon the hour of 
separation. The mules were put to the double spring 
wagon, seats improvised, and all hands, that is to say, 

the glass vessel strange sounds are heard so long as the flashing 
beam is falling on the vessel. Recently a more wonderful discovery 
has been made. A beam of sunlight is made to pass through a 
prism, so as to produce what is called the solar spectrum or rain- 
bow. The disc is turned, and the colored light of the rainbow is 
made to break through it. Now place the ear to the vessel con- 
taining the silk, wool, or other material. As the colored lights of 
the spectrum fall upon it, sounds will be given by different parts of 
the spectrum, and there will be silence in other parts. For instance 
if the vessel contains red worsted, and the green light flashes upon 
it, loud sounds will be given. The feeble sounds will be heard if 
the red and blue parts of the rainbow fall upon the vessel, and other 
colors make no sounds at all. Green silk gives sound best in red 
light. Every kind of material gives more or less sound in different 
colors, and utters no sound in others. The discovery is a strange 
one, and it is thought more wonderful things will come from it. 

15 


226 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


the entire household, accompanied our friend to the 
railway depot to see him off, with all possible good 
cheer. The morning was. crisp and bracing, and a 
jolly ride we had. 

At the depot were Mr. and Mrs. Follene, with sev- 
eral friends, who joined our party at once, so that 
Brother Caleb found himself sustained by a noble 
band of well-wishers and friends. 

As the train rolled in, the good man’s eyes moist- 
ened, and his voice faltered just a little, as his honest 
hand went the rounds for the parting shake. 

Miriam and Mary gave him a hearty kiss, and so, 
we parted, pledging to meet daily, in loving thought 
“ though sundered far.” 

When hidden things shall be revealed, it will be 
seen that this plain, honest, unselfish, crossbearing, 
follower of Christ and John Wesley, wrought wiser 
than he knew, and many stars will shine in his crown 
of rejoicing. 

Here’s a man who, for over a score of years, 
carried his deep grief hidden in his heart, lest it might 
disqualify him to bear others’ burdens, and so fulfil 
the law of Christ. 

Now that through the spirit of his sainted wife, we 
know his secret sorrow. Uncle Caleb is dearer to us 
than ever, and I am sure that he feels the intense 
light of life eternal, bearing down upon him, with 
hitherto unknown force. Friend and brother, we 


AJVGELS^ VISITS. 


227 

shall daily think of thee with love and confidence, 
and follow thee with our prayers and sympathies, 
and hold communion with thee in spirit, for we 
have only to employ the same methods to commune 
with one another here on the earth — though far sep- 
arated, as we do when we would draw to us our 
spirit friends from the bordering heights yonder. 

Friend, when we have truly mastered this truth and 
its precious applications, our fellowship will lack no 
element of perfection and gratifying grace. 

This is, perhaps, the' first great lesson of genuine 
spiritualism. 

What benefit ? is sneeringly asked, as though we 
were playing with shadows. What practical reward 
can come to those who devote time and life, to this 
applied philosophy.? How is mankind to be blessed 
by it .? How are souls to be elevated, and lives 
purified, and hearts comforted .? 

I answer : In this, first of all ; — that they are brought 
into real fellowship — into real contact and helpful 
communion in the power of the Spirit with that which 
is most desirable and elevating. 

The weak, with the strong. 

The ignorant, with the wise. 

The helpless and benighted, with the enlightened 
and the helpful. 

The victims of evil, with the evangels and minis- 
ters of good. 


228 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


The outcast, with the established ; and the wand- 
erers with those who know the way home. 

Are these small benefits.? 

Indeed, madam, no ; but they must be rated among 
the best, the largest, and most coveted. 

When we come into relationship with angels of 
light, the darkness that surrounds us disappear. 

They bring this atmosphere of light, and life, and 
love, about us, and we are transfigured thereby and 
therein. In this blessed condition they speak with 
us as Moses and Elias spoke with Jesus on the moun- 
tain, and the light of their presence lingers upon us 
and within us long after they have retired. 

In like manner, and by the same law, we shall 
minister to others, who, below us in earth’s darkness, 
in the bewildering valleys, or on the mountains 
astray, need our ministry of hope, of revelations 
and sympathy, and thus shall we become as angels 
of comfort and courage to them. 

Who can estimate this benefit .? Nor is this all. 

The level of humanity is gradually raised. The 
plane rises. The valleys receive the light, and the 
mountains become bathed in brightness. The new 
hope imparts new life, and the new life ascends. 
We do not need to search for individual instances, 
for they are plentiful. The work is too large for that. 

We may search for conditions, changed, and chang- 
ing always, for the better. 


AJVGELS’ VISITS, 


229 


The leaven leavens the lump 

At the springs of life the power of transformation 
and regeneration is working, and that power is fed 
and fostered by our purpose and sympathy. 

In the midst of these clear and undoubted facts, 
what remains for us, but the most assuring and en- 
nobling realizations. 

What is going on in the wide world has already 
taken place within us, and we are positive, rooted, 
grounded in eternal truth. 

What is hope to the newly awakened, is experience 
to us. 

What appears as proximate and within reach to 
those who now begin to aspire, is actual, factual and 
integral, to us. 

Can any one describe all this in its very natural 
effect upon life and living ? 

Who, for a moment, will doubt the wonderful 
transforming, and transmuting influence of such facts 
and realization in any human consciousness. 

The grossly ignorant might deny; but ignorance is 
not an accounting condition. 

An infant is not expected to solve a problem in 
Euclid, nor can ignorance, however much refined, 
grasp the first fact of the condition we realize. 

The vicious may scoff, but then viciousness is a 
condition of appalling imprisonment, bound in 
chains of darkness. How can one who has always 


AJVGELS^ VISITS. 


230 

been bound, appreciate the charms and facts of 
liberty ? 

An ignorant or superstitious scoffer may demand 
to know how and why I am brought into the sub- 
lime fellowship of angels and pure spirits ? 

My reply is : You have no right to know, since you 
are in no condition to appreciate, or realize. The 
children’s meat must not be cast out to the dogs. 

I am not bound to explain to any mortal, how or 
why ! 

I am not bound to defend the truth when it is 
assailed by wolves, when that defence implies its 
exposure to their cruel fangs. 

When the rabble of the day, led by the Scribes and 
Pharisees, pressed hard the blind man whose sight 
came at the touch of Jesus, and demanded of him to 
know who it was who had performed so unheard of 
a cure, the restored man said : “Why do you press 
me with your cruel questions } Why do ye demand 
so minute an account of Him by whose power I was 
made to see.? 

“ Will ye also believe in him P” 

Note the point, “will ye also believe in him ! ” 

So say we to the ruthless scoffers, who with an 
ignorance only equalled by its cruelty, demand of us 
the surrender to them of the sweet secrets of our faith 
and philosophy. Would ye also believe ? Do you ask 
for good, or for evil reasons ? 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


231 

Would you learn the truth, and live by it, or, having 
found it, would you send it beneath your feet? 

The chief pjiests and their cliques once surrounded 
Jesus, in the midst of his bountiful and merciful 
work, and insolently demanded to know by what 
or by whose authority he performed his mighty 
works. 

He perceived their insincerity, and, instead of vin- 
dicating his right or showing his divine prescription, 
he simply propounded to them a poser. They feared 
to answer him, and took refuge behind a lie. 

His reply concerns us in these times. He said, 
‘‘Neither tell I you by what authority I do these 
things” {Luke xx.). But he continued to heal the 
sick, to cast out demons, and to teach the willing, in 
every place. 

He did not cease to speak of the spiritual power 
inherent in, and conferred upon him, to his honest 
hearers, but he refused to subject it to the cruel and 
vindictive slights of the self-righteous regulars of his 
day. 

Our lesson is here, also, for this day and time. 

The hour and the powers of darkness triumph when 
we concede to their treacherous demands, and sub- 
ject the Ark of God to the touch of uncleanness, and 
they cower behind their refuges of lies, when we 
boldly deny their occupancy and their inquisitorial 
tests. 


232 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


By what right does any man question spiritual 
power, spiritual fellowship, spirit recognition, and the 
whole vast array of truths, facts, verities, principles, 
and phenomena, of the sublime philosophy which we 
know and teach ? 

Truth is open, let them investigate. Facts are 
tangible, let them examine for themselves. 

Spirits are entities, let them seek contact with 
them, even of their own kind, for the deliverance of 
their scoffing souls. 

Power of spirit is distinct, appreciative, and appre- 
ciable power, let them invoke it. 

The phenomenal is abundant, and easily tested, let 
them begin. 

But whosoever assumes the right to denounce, to 
prosecute, to deny and punish, because he does not 
believe, nor understand, is outside of law, and the 
creature of evil. 

He is neither the representative nor the child of 
civilization. 

He is, as yet, unfit to hear or to handle, the holy 
things of our commonwealth. He is without ; — and 
“without are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, 
and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one 
that loveth and doeth a lie.” 

That the leaven of spiritual philosophy is grandly 
working the world throughout, no thoughtful man will 
question. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


233 

Admit that there are frauds, hypocrites, and char- 
latans, and many who follow the lusts of the flesh, 
while pretending to obey the voice of the Spirit of 
Truth ; 

Admit that among the followers of this Christ, often 
a Judas appears, who, in the trying hour, betrays him 
with a kiss ; 

Admit that conductors of seances, after the manner 
of “ Holy Church,” have countenanced and practiced 
and traded in sinful indulgences, for a price : 

Admit that the tribe of Bar-Jesus — (the familiar of 
Sergius Paulus, the pro-consul) — a false prophet, full 
of guile and villainy, son of a devil and perverter of 
the ways of the Lord (Acts xiii.), and who was 
smitten with blindness for his evil machinations ; 
admit, I say, that this tribe is still flourishing, and 
that modern Elymases find, in assuming to be spirit- 
ualists, an opportunity to pursue their vocation, and 
that many are deceived by them. 

Will you hold Spiritualism responsible for these 
evils 

Judas was one of the twelve, yet, “he had a devil.” 

Tetzel, the monkish trader in “ indulgences,” was 
a priest in the Holy Roman Catholic Church. 

John Calvin, who consented to, if he did not cause, 
the cruel murder of a brother minister who differed 
from him on points of doctrine, was the founder and 
father of a system of Theology which is accepted 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


234 

to-day by multitudes of enlightened people, as the 
eternal truth of God. 

Do these abnormalities truly represent and ex- 
emplify Christianity ? 

Quite as truly as the false in Spiritualism represents 
and exemplifies the true — no more, no less. 

Let us turn the faces of these hideous pictures and 
caricatures to the wall, and proceed to note, with be- 
coming pleasure, the change manifest in public opin- 
ion, public toleration, and public tendency, in respect 
to Spiritualism and its philosophy, within your 
memory, my dear young friend. 

Enter any church, and you can correctly judge its 
power and usefulness, by the ratio of the teaching 
and acceptance of the great truths underlying what 
we know and feel. 

The useful and successful preacher is no longer the 
dogmatist, the partisan, and the narrow-minded 
zealot, but he is the broadly human, the deeply 
spiritual, and the wisely tolerant. 

What has wrought this great advance .? Not educa- 
tion, nor so-called church work alone, but the spirit 
of the new age, working through all means, within 
and without, and awakening the latent sympathies 
that should be found in every human breast. 

The universal wish is to know spiritual things, and 
spiritual things in every faith belong to the real, the 
good, the progressive, and the permanent. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


235 

The world has been profoundly wrought upon from 
the spiritual side, until now the voice of truth and the 
method of the true life, will be heard, and enter- 
tained. 

The golden opportunity is ours at last, and all pre- 
vious advances will seem but faint rays of moonlight 
compared with the sunburst oflight and power of the 
Spirit, now breaking and to break upon the vision and 
consciousness of mankind. 

The hopeful day-close followed by great fruition, 
is breaking at last. 

The hope is as old as human intelligent aspiration, 
but age after age has passed away making no 
triumphant sign. 

Christs have appeared, whose lives have become 
parts, sometimes most tragic, of human history, and 
their intense devotion to humanity has always lifted 
it up. 

But the dead line always interposed an insuperable 
barrier in following whither they would lead. The 
way became lost in the darkness of death, and the 
cry of humanity, beginning in hope and faith, died 
away, and blended with the wild cries of despair, in 
a night of unrelieved darkness. 

Forevermore let it now be different. 

Let the light shine ! 

Let the voice of truth proclaim its sweet and power- 
ful message, unrestrained and unhindered. 


236 ANGELS' VISITS. 

Let no new barriers be erected, now that the old 
have given way. 

Turn on the forces — the intellectual, the spiritual 
forces — whose concreted energies of movement shall 
overwhelm the last error and evil ! 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


237 


CHAPTER XXV. 

DROPPINGS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

O, though oft depressed and lonely, 

All my fears are laid aside, 

If I but remember only 

Such as these have lived and died ! 

Longfellow.— of Angels. 

We hold the keys of heaven within our hands. 

The gift and heirloom of a former state, 

And lie in infancy at heaven’s gate. 

Transfigured in the light that streams along the lands ! 
Around our pillows golden ladders rise, 

And up and down the skies. 

With winged sandals shod, 

The angels come and go, the messengers of God ! 

Stoddard. — Hymn to the Beautiful. 


We call our meeting place the sanctuary, because 
therein the light of God’s holy presence dwells, and 
the presence of the angels is sensed and seen, and 
there we receive their lessons and testimonies. 

I do not know who first called spiritualist circles 
seances, but the name is unworthy, and too secular. 
Sanctuary is better, and so our place of meeting is our 
sanctuary, and the lessons therein learned and the 
messages therein given may well be called “drop- 
pings of the sanctuary.” 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


238 

I wish it were so that all rooms and places conse- 
crated to spiritual uses might be known as sanctuaries, 
and that those who are admitted within were made to 
feel that they come face to face with most sacred 
matters, and not to pass away a curious or an idle 
hour. These meetings should be multiplied also, ten 
thousand fold-r-in truth they should be established in 
every spiritualist household — for where “ two or three 
are gathered together there am I in the midst of them, ” 
said the greatest teacher and medium. 

There is much wholesome discussion abroad among 
enlightened spiritualists on the subject of Organiza- 
tion — the organization of spiritualists into a sort of 
corporate body, like the Church. 

But I am filled with the conviction that the indi- 
vidual and family life is the theatre of our greatest 
work, and that the creation of sanctuaries every- 
where, where two or three can be drawn together, 
will be better than a great outward or structural or- 
ganization. There is organization, you may be sure, 
but it is spiritual, and without machinery. It is pat- 
terned after Nature, whose laws extend allwhere, and 
touch all things. 

Our care must be to let on the light as we receive 
it, and let it shine within its own horizon, brightening 
and vivifying all within its radius. 

The effect we should look for is the light itself. 
Still, there must be a gathering in of kindred souls 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


239 

here and there. We shall gravitate toward centres, 
and toward one another. 

No particular outward method will always be em- 
ployed, but the inner life, the true spirit, will seek and 
find its own atmosphere and fellowship. 

Identification will be easy and unfailing, for the 
false will not seek affiliation with the true, but shun it 

They will fly apart Hypocrisy will hide its head 
in the presence of sincerity. Neither is a great or- 
ganization, after the manner of churches, necessary 
for the sponsorship and authority of mediumship. 

True mediumship needs no sponsor, no earthly 
endorsement, no balistering. It will always prove 
itself. 

“ By their fruits ye shall know them.” 

Art will seek to substitute spirit, but will fail at the 
life line. 

Deceivers will abound and wax bold, and seek to 
pass as the very elect, but, in the presence of the true, 
they will hide their heads in confusion, and sink to 
their own place. 

The touchstone of sympathy is universal, and can- 
not be simulated successfully. In defence of undoubted 
lapses and falling away of some who have received 
the heavenly gift, and have often given proof of 
genuine mediumship, it has been said that ‘‘Spirits 
do not care so that they find an instrument.” 

True, doubtless, oi certain spirits, but not of the kind 


240 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


whose holy ministries we should seek to interpret and 
cultivate. 

Spirits do care. They do discriminate. They do 
not willing-ly employ unworthy instruments. 

They look with holy indignation in the face of the 
imputation. 

There is no excuse for evil mediumship, and the 
truth repudiates it utterly and forever. The voice of 
Spiritualism cries aloud, “Be ye clean who bear the 
vessels of the sanctuary. ” 

The wicked one who claims mediumship for minis- 
tering spirits of good, “steals the livery of heaven,” 
to screen evil and self. “ The lust of the flesh,” is no 
part of mediumistic qualification ; neither is dis- 
honesty, nor craft. 

Spiritual leadership is first true, then peaceable, then 
fraternal, then unselfish and pure, and thinketh no evil. 

It takes all conditions within its purview, and seeks 
only to remove evil and promote good, at all cost to 
itself. 

It is unmixed with evil, except in so far as itself is 
imperfect. 

It needs no defence, it is transparent to all, even to 
the evil eye. 

It cannot fail. 

Its course is onward toward the better, and the 
better, until it leads humanity into fullness of life. 

To this responsible and exalted work you who are 


ANGELS* VISITS. 


241 


true mediums, are called. There is no greater honor. 
There is no more exacting labor and sacrifice ! 

But, fear not ye, for the compensations are corre- 
spondingly great, if not rated on the stock boards of 
the world. Inconceivably great — and everlasting. 

The ships that come in from afar with precious car- 
goes that enrich forever, are wafted hither to the har- 
bors of our consciousness, by the blessed breezes of 
human benedictions and gratitude in ennobled lives, 
for blessings conferred through our fidelity and love, 
the imperishable coinage of perpetual life elevated 
and blessed, the currency of Eternity ! 

Ah ! what treasures ! 

What are gold and silver, honors, fame, worldly place 
and power ; what are these in comparison ? In the 
passing breath they perish, or are tarnished. 

They are of the earth, earthy. 

They create no paths yonder. 

They build no monuments, and can have no men- 
tion hereafter. Their very history passes away, and 
is lost in the eternal drift. They inherit oblivion. But 
the words, the deeds, the projects, the expenditures, 
the sacrifices, of the life we are called to be, — ah ! 
these shall constitute the glowing memorials of the 
present and the enduring institutions of the future. 

The pocket in the millionaire’s shroud will be empty 
directly his hand stiffens in death, while the treasures 

of the spiritual evangelist, poor in perishable wealth, 

16 


242 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


perhaps, will all be found awaiting him where ‘‘moth 
nor rust doth corrupt, and thieves break not through 
and steal/’ 

Let us redeem the time, good reader, and that we 
may surely find our bread forever, let us continue to 
cast it upon the w^aters. 

If you, dear reader, are a medium, take courage — 
and stand fast. 

The Spirit of God and the blessings of good angels 
will consecrate your mediumship. The great power 
lies here. When the truth has such an instrument it 
comes with strange force, with irresistible power, with 
all-embracing convincingness. 

The way will be rough sometimes, and the ques- 
tion of daily bread will divide your normal hours, 
and, perhaps, retard your perfect consecration. 

Don’t give up. Jesus said of himself, that he had 
no resting-place for his head. In a worldly sense, he 
was impecunious. He eased the pangs of hunger with 
the growing corn as he passed through the fields, and 
borrowed money from the fish in the lake to pay his 
taxes with. His home was with the poorest and the 
humblest. 

The dews of the night fell on his earnest face often, 
while he pleaded for strength and courage, and the 
dear angels bore him company into the solitudes, 
where he fasted and wept, whence he returned to 
move the world by his sympathies. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


243 

But for divine and angelic ministrations, he must 
have failed often, before his task was done. 

But he was sustained to the last, and left nothing 
for his enemies to divide, except his simple wardrobe, 
while to the world he bequeathed the irrepressible 
purpose of his life. 

I do not say that we should expect to be called upon 
to follow him in all these particulars ; but herein lies a 
lesson for us all, and, could we find it, the principle 
of SListentation more available than silver and gold. 

“Silver and gold have I none,” said Peter, “but 
such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of 
Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 

And he took the lame man by the hand and lifted 
him up, and the lame walked, and leaped, and 
shouted. 

Gold glitters ; it is useful, very convenient, very 
serviceable, very attractive, and, oh, dear ! how very 
necessary ! But it could not have imparted strength 
to the lame man. 

It could not have lifted him up. Spiritual power is 
greater than gold power. It will lift up the lame. 

It will open blind eyes. 

It will cause the dumb to sing. 

It will heal broken hearts. 

It will mend broken lives. 

It will lighten heavy burthens. 

It will remove mountains. 


244 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


It will bridge streams. 

It will — 

“ Make the rough paths of peevish nature even, 

And open in the breast a little heaven.’ ’ 

Spiritual gold is the refined truth, which we are 
permitted and commissioned to distribute to the 
poor, the helpless, the sad, and the dying ! Did I 
say, take courage ? 

Let me say it again ! 

Critically viewing the field of our labor, I am filled 
with the sense of progress. 

The moving power is deep down in the life of 
humanity, and we only now see the outward signs of 
movement. Depend upon it, there are great throbs 
bursting up from the heart of things, and the truth 
which we know is feeling its triumphant way along. 

The religion of men and of churches do not feed 
the soul ; do not perfect the character ; do not 
educate the spirit ; do not possess the future ; do not 
answer the universal questions ; do not reconcile the 
immense differences ; do not harmonize the ever 
present contradictions ; and do not teach with 
authority ! 

For all they know, death ends all. They talk 
volubly about hope, but limit it arbitrarily, to time. 
They poetize about a future life, but it is too coldly 
future, and there is a great gulf fixed ! 

They speak in loud sounding, but dreary phrases, 


AMGELSr VISITS. 


245 

about God, Heaven, and Eternity, but they either 
make their pictures forbidding or impossible. Salva- 
tion is in the future tense. ‘ ‘ Thus saith the Lord ” is 
often only the shibboleth or the battle cry of some 
very human, and often vindictive sectary. 

The balm in Gilead is turned into gall by the 
alchemy of ecclesiasticism, and the life which is 
idealized by an unspiritual church is full of sophistries 
and hypocricies, or else it is utterly impractical. The 
enthusiasm and spirit of the Christ have little place, 
and dead formalties usurp the place and ministry of 
spiritual simplicity. It is a consolation to know that, 
while the churches militant are casting lots and 
wrangling for territory, and over the terms on which 
they will proceed to save humanity, the whole world, 
under the leadership of the new life which spiritualism 
imparts and reveals, is moving toward all solutions, 
listening to the still small voices from the higher 
spheres, and finding God’s throne of love homesteaded 
in the human heart ! 

Would you abolish the Church } 

No, indeed : there is a better way. 

I would have it converted, inspired, sanctified, by 
the new, old truth. 

I would multiply its Newtons, its Savages, its 
Hungers, its Eatons, its Kents, its Chadwicks, its 
Collyers, its Bishop Eosters, and its Caleb Soyers — 
sons of consolation and sons of thunder — and filled 
with power of the Spirit. 


246 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


CHAPTER XXVL 

FRAGMENTS. 

“ Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost. — Jesus. 

We continue our evening conversations, although 
we greatly miss our friend Caleb, who is now 
engaged in his Master’s work on Indian River. 

With Miriam, Mary Van Elt, Comfort and Dr. 
Graeme, there can be no lack of agreeable conversa- 
tion, and realizing as we do, the constant presence 
of other loved ones with their bright friends, you may 
be sure that we do not tire of receiving the heavenly 
lessons, nor of discussing their bearing upon our life 
and our age. 

It would be impossible as well as unprofitable, and 
foreign to my purpose to burden these pages with 
much that falls to us in these daily conferences. Our 
discussions take a wide range, for in our spiritual 
company are often many who, by reason of past pur- 
suits and present relationship, lead us to glean in 
fields of thought far removed from the purely 
spiritual. 

An interesting feature also is the revelation of the 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


247 

personal life of many, who, under the guidance of 
gifted spirits, have, since death released them from 
earth, made great and strange discoveries in the many 
spheres of spirit possession ; explored far distant 
realms in the infinite zone ; traced the marvellous Prov- 
idence of Good in the ordination of pleasures suited 
to the exalted and the humble, and with ecstatic enthu- 
siasm, detail the innumerable social delights of the 
heavenly communities. 

Should I repeat for you many of these personal 
narratives, as they have been given to us in the 
abandon of freedom and conversation, a sort of spirit 
drawing-room gossip — you would probably shrug 
your shoulders at such disconnected “ small talk,” and 
would, perhaps, feel like reading the voluble visitors 
a serious lesson upon the limitations of credulity. 

And yet, a moment’s reflection will restore your 
equilibrium, for, if you are on visiting terms with the 
exclusive society, “ the four-hundred ” of your com- 
munity, you will admit that the vanity and the magni- 
fied nothings, which form the staple of polite conver- 
sation, go far to discredit, in character and purpose, 
what you know to be most excellent and worthy, at 
bottom. 

There are spiritual vanities, and plenty of sentiment- 
al idlers in the spirit life, and, I may also assure you, 
many new varieties. 

Psalm singing, serious occupation, ecstatic con- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


248 

templation of divine persons and things, rigid en- 
forcement of the rules for self-humiliation and growth 
in grace, are most worthy and most commendable, 
within limits, for mortals and spirits, but as here on 
the earth, so yonder beyond, such rules are better 
known in the breach than in the observance, often. 

All this does not imply evil nor lack of genuine 
progress. 

One of the weak ‘‘fads” of certain schools of 
Christian discipline, is the undue cultivation of self- 
depreciation, until the downcast eyes, the restrained 
nature, and the rigid, unrelaxable, long face, are taken 
to be the outward visible signs of inward spiritual 
grace. 

I have heard ministers rebuke the exuberance of 
innocent, cheerful life, by reminding the frightened 
culprit of the solemn fact (supposed) that “Jesus 
never smiled.” 

However this may be, it will hardly be questioned 
that, in his teachings, so far as they have come down 
to us, rightly interpreted, he lays the foundation for 
joyful hope and cheerful living. 

On that sad occasion when, in profound sympathy 
with his dearest friends, whose brother had just died. 
It is said of him that, after groaning in spirit, “Jesus 
wept ; ” the light of triumphant love and joy soon 
glorified the tear-stained face, when, at his instance, 
the dead returned to the welcoming: embraces of lov- 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


249 

mg’ sisters, and the happy family at Bethany was 
once more intact with Jesus in the midst. 

Do you think that that first evening at the little 
cottage at Bethany after the restoration of Lazarus, 
which the beloved Jesus doubtless spent with the 
happy family, was without cheerfulness, joyous laugh- 
ter, and characteristic rejoicing ? 

Hardly. 

I quite admit that the restoring of the young 
brother to his sisters, after he had been dead four 
days, was a rather solemn event, as I have heard it 
described, but it was not half so solemn as lying still 
in the grave, and never being restored at all. In fact, 
it must have been the signal for high social festivities 
within the circle of friends, and, as on the occasion of 
the younger son’s return to his father’s house, in the 
parable, if the family at Bethany had a fatted calf, it 
was no doubt killed for the joyful feast, and music 
and innocent revelry of congratulation ruled the 
hours — no selfish elder brother being present to object 
or find fault. 

But here’s a story by our bright Celeste : — 

Once, many years ago, there lived on the earth a 
man who combined uncommon wisdom and great 
wealth. 

He was accounted so wise that learned philoso- 
phers sought counsel of him ; and so great was his 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


250 

wealth that the treasure houses of kings were as 
pebbles to a mountain compared therewith. 

How did he esteem his wealth ? 

Not as did the fool, of whom Jesus speaks, who, 
having accumulated vast possessions, forgot his 
stewardship. 

This wise man esteemed his wealth as power and 
providence entrusted to him for benevolent ends. 

Wasn't that beautiful ? 

And so he consulted the oracles to ascertain the 
number of his earthly days, and then he set about 
enjoying the ministry of his goodness and wealth. 

Every day he employed a certain portion of his 
wealth to the relief of human want. 

He also created roving benevolences, and his lavish 
bestowals employed many energies, and found their 
way into all the abodes of trouble, poverty and sick- 
ness, within the area of his purpose. 

The days passed, and with them extended the 
august generosity of this wise man. His years were 
crowned with unutterable grace and dignity and 
beauty, for the force of his character was as a per- 
petually rising sun upon the world. The last day of 
his human life on earth witnessed the disposition of 
the last centime of his perishable wealth, so that 
when the gates of Paradise opened to him, he had no 
unfinished work to regret, and no unspent power to 
account for. 


ANGELS’ VISITS. 


251 

The unthinking world said : ‘‘What folly to waste 
so grand a patrimony and accumulation upon the 
poor, when one might found a mighty family on the 
earth, and leave a name for ten thousand first-born 
to bear, with inheritance/’ 

But the wise man was justified in the life to which 
he ascended, for he entered at once into an imperish- 
able inheritance of good deeds, which he will forever 
enjoy. 

A Word for the Indian. 

After all, your boasted civilization is one of injus- 
tice, bitter and cumulative. 

What have you to say for the studied zeal with 
which you have restrained the law of right toward 
the Indians } 

How can you continue to grasp and hold in in- 
justice the heritage which great Nature gave to their 
fathers, and which our fathers pledged should forever 
remain to their children } 

Think you that the thousand blots on the historic 
page of your dealings with the Indians are to be wiped 
out by resolutions of sympathy for them and of neces- 
sity for yourselves .? 

The children of nature cannot appreciate your 
sympathy, nor can the children of Light ; cannot read 
into it what you declare flows out. 

Neither do they need what you call sympathy. 


252 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


I 


They can understand justice, and justice only is 
what they demand. 

Behold your hypocrisy ! 

You offersympathy — and withhold justice ! Cannot 
you see that justice — straight-out justice — is the true 
and guileless essence of sympathy ? 

It is not true that this age is too great and too good 
to be brought into immediate condemnation and 
reckoning for this national wrong, constantly inflicted 
upon the Indian. Rest assured, atonement must be 
made, and full reparation in ways not conceived of 
by you. 

Nemesis is vigilant, she is wise, she is just, she is 
retributive, and she is no respecter of persons nor 
ages ; and she is surely, like the executors of God, 
slowly pursuing in your footsteps, and will overtake 
and punish you ! 

Will you .take warning by the history of all wrong? 
Will you, by a juster appreciation of the natural con- 
ditions, the limited horizon, and the helpless natural- 
ness of Indian character, enact such laws, enforce 
such regulations, and pursue and adopt such methods 
toward them as will at once restore their faith in the 
national honor, and increase their days in the land ? 

You cannot force upon them jyour civilization. 
Therefore you should not force them out of it, and 
out of their own, into the deep sea of oblivion. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


253 


Spiritual work. 

There is no machinery, so to say, in spiritual work. 

It is direct, and needs no conveyor or intermediary 
other than the propulsive forces of sympathy, the 
spirit in you asserting its will, its desire, its bequest, 
its gifts, its benedictions, and its tender solicitude. It 
is a breathing forth of truth upon all the planes of life, 
full of contagious sympathy and love. 

It means purity in life, in heart, in deed, in word — 
and forever. 

It is the investiture of heaven. 

It clothes the human soul with befitting garments, 
and sets it moving in right directions. It is a teacher 
of aspirations ; a guide of motor ; an inspirer of pur- 
pose. It (our work) opens up by spiritual means, 
lines of duty, of self-development, of upwardness 
toward most desirable and coveted possessions in 
thought, in consciousness, in immortality. It does 
this for the individual life, rather than, in a general 
way, for communities as such. The unit is the base 
of universal uplifting, and the mighty upturning of 
the world must begin in the individual soul. Contact 
with masses of men is often abortive, always unsatis- 
factory, seldom productive of best results. 

It is the occasion and arena of strife. 

It is the opportunity of the scoffer, of the sectary, 
of the unbeliever, of the charlatan, of the hypocrite. 


AATGELS' VISITS. 


254 

of the gainsayer, of the lover of pleasure more than 
the lover of God, of the striker and the disputer of 
this world. 

The subtle currents of divine truth avoid the 
methods of the earthquake and the cyclone and the 
thunder-bolt, and prefer the gentle, mellifluent token 
of the still small voice, speaking heaven’s message to 
the spellbound, listening heart. 

This is the highest method. 

It is most spiritual. 

It makes its circuit even as the light steals into the 
shadows, and ere you know it, they have vanished. 
We speak notin condemnation of more public methods 
and organizations. 

Occasion is found for these, but it is oft times made, 
because the customs of men have run in such chan- 
nels so long. 

Institutions, organizations, conventions, societies, 
etc., all prove this : but one may well ask, from a 
spiritual point of view — cm bono /—upon a close in- 
spection. 

You hear of persons ‘"running” a “Church,” a 
“Hall,” a “Society,” or an “ Institution.” 

Machinery is machinery whether it be of iron and 
steel driven by steam, or of men and woman directed 
by a “committee,” a “chairman, a “consistory,” or 
a ‘ ‘ preacher. ” 

It has its uses and they have their value, but in 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


255 

things spiritual, after all, '‘the wind bloweth, and 
thou hearest the voice but canst not tell whence it 
cometh and whither it goeth,” as the Master said, 
but ye hear it, feel it, know and acknowledge it, and, 
in a grand sense, embody it, — without machinery. 

To be its confidante, its interpreter, its co-worker, 
albeit in the more retired paths where souls with 
burdens pass, is better than to be the leader of 
masses or the commander of armies. 

To establish wayside sanctuaries (spiritual circles) 
where the weary may rest, and where the heartbroken 
may find solace, and the outcast find refuge, is a 
grander and more enduring work than to build marble 
and granite cathedrals. 


256 


ANGELS' VISITS, 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

FINDING HIS MOTHER. 

The beautiful and versatile Celeste always interests 
us with her parables and stories, and by her presence 
greatly adds to the charm of our evening’s lessons. 

Of her we know nothing, although many attempts 
have been made to learn her history. 

‘ ‘ Shall I tell you another story .? ” was her pleasant 
greeting to us through Mary Van Elt, last night. 

“We shall be delighted,” all lips replied, and 
Doctor Graeme prepared his note-book and pencils. 

I. 

It is all about Cecil finding his mother, and I am 
sure you will appreciate it because it will reflect hope 
and good cheer on your present life of anxiety and 
much doubting. 

You do well to have faith, for thereby you shall 
overcome many difficulties and escape many dangers. 
But we come to you for the purpose of adding to your 
faith, knowledge. 

We bring you certain tidings of what your faith only 
dimly and questioningly, if at all, descries, and we 
fill your consciousness with the sense of certainty 


ANGELS'' FIS ITS. 


257 

We make you to know, that this life is real, tangible, 
companionable, social, and beautifully human. 

We bring you the proofs and lay them upon your 
accepting hearts. 

Well, then, you must know, that the motherly love 
glorifies humanity above all else, and whoever is not 
reached and touched by its sweet penetrations must 
be somewhere beyond the reach of my recognition. 
I do not find such. 

He must be annihilated. 

For the rest I will repeat to you the great truth that 
human ties and the natural relationships hold forever. 
Listen to my story. 

There was once a most wayward son, who, for 
heaven’s gain, lost his mother. She did not need the 
fruitful conditions of the angel spheres to develop the 
angelicness of her character. 

Not so, by very much. 

During her earth life, wherever she went, there 
went an angel, and what she did it was as though an 
angel did it. Until manhood prime she guided, pro 
tected, blessed and enriched her son. Their love was 
beautiful to see. 

When she ascended to us she left her blessing upon 
the child of her love, but the dense nothingness only 
that seemed to remain to him, denied the sweet min- 
istries of a life that had gone from his gaze and touch. 
The result was that he quarrelled with his condition, 

17 


258 ANGELS'' VISITS. 

denounced the condition that, as he said, mocked 
him, and demanded revenge upon the Infinite One 
for robbing him of his mother. 

Let him not be harshly judged, nor rashly con- 
demned. 

To feel the light suddenly dashed out of your life, 
leaving you bereft of your chief, if not your only, joy, 
is not a small trial, and only the enlightened, those 
whose eyes follow the vanishing upward-rising spirit, 
can look with complacence and resignation there- 
upon. 

This solvent of the great problem the young man 
did not possess. He had always had, if he did not 
always fully appreciate, his mother, and realizing 
her great love and all-powerful guardianship, he 
could not conceive a time when she would pass from 
his mortal life and thereafter only exercise the holy 
functions of motherhood within the realm of spiritual 
discernment — that great thing which he most lacked. 

So as I have said, he quarrelled with his condition, 
and refused to be comforted or reconciled. 

He knew no life but the material, and scorned all 
influences that did not appear and approach in easily 
recognized garb and method. 

Death was death to him, and the power that had 
robbed him of his now idolized mother, was guilty of 
an unnamable crime, and worthy of eternal ven- 
geance. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


259 

He called aloud in space for his lost mother, and, 
in his pitiful despair, challenged the Infinite to discus- 
sion. 

He would stand at the grave in the lonely copse, 
under the stars, and appeal with touching pathos and 
filial hunger to the silent dust beneath ; — and then he 
would plaintively pour out his mighty grief to the 
witnessing stars above. But no response came save 
the echoes of his own wailings, the staccato notes of 
his unreasoning sorrow. 

But, my dear friends, did not that mother hear her 
child ? 

In truth, yes ; and oh, with what responsive love ! 

She both heard and saw him in the unrelieved 
paroxysm of his grief, until exhaustion befel him, and 
he threw himself into the abyss of speechless, keen 
despair. 

If darkness is not a phase of light, surely nothing 
can come after, but light. You do not and cannot 
know, by ordinary channels of prophecy, at what 
point of intensified darkness the light may burst in. 

But there is a law for this too. 

There comes a moment when darkness, filled 
with poignant sorrow, has exhausted its vitality ; also 
when its resources are utterly at an end : when its 
elements and constituents can no longer subsist with 
power within the life : when, as if swept by an 
omnipotent wing, it must suddenly pass hence, and 


26 o ANGELS’ VISITS. 

become invisible and impossible, in the incoming 
tides of light. 

Then the spell is broken. 

The evil powers, so terrific in appearance and 
method, are disbanded, and, without direction and 
cohesion, cease to be. 

Am I transparent ? 

11 . 

Evils have been neutralized, also affirmed ; bless- 
ings have been created and conferred ; that which 
seemed lost has been found, and the impossible 
(believed) has been compassed, and the trend of 
history and the life of humanity have been changed 
and directed, through dreams. 

To dream ! What is it but to entice and liberate 
the spirit from its mortal limitations, for the time, and 
give it the freedom of its own world ! 

What is it, but the emancipation of spirit personality 
out of the mixed and doubtful, into the most real and 
substantial. 

The ‘ ‘ baseless fabric ” of a dream is the expression 
of a false philosophy which reverses the natural order. 

No one realizes fully in physical life the idealiza- 
tions of his dreams. 

And yet, the most desirable, the most sensible, the 
most harmonious, and the perfect, appear in the 
dream. 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


261 


What is a dream ? 

It is a spirit awakening. 

It is a spirit excursion into realms invisible and 
unreal to the physical senses. Yet the sounds, scenes, 
persons, pictures, only faintly retained after the dream 
is done, are no less actual, real, and tangible there- 
fore. Well, then, our young friend first found respite 
and returning interest, in his dreams. 

It was in this wise : — 

He journeyed (in his dream) over vast solitudes 
and deserts, until, dying with hunger and thirst, he 
suddenly espied a bubbling fountain, and about its 
flowing providence were delicious fruits of every kind. 
He awoke from sleep, and his first reflection was a 
smile. The vision retained was pleasant and inspir- 
ing. 

Again he dreamed. He was a search-warrant, and 
the universe bafflingly hid his object. What a 
dream ! 

His flight was the envy of the fleetest wing. 
Hence, away, sped he, until the studded firmament 
twinkled faintly far behind. He had the wings of 
morning and of evening, and the distant gates opened 
at his approach, until he found himself confronting 
the immediate surroundings of the throne of God. 

Did he tremble with fear.? 

Did he fall prostrate, smitten down by the glory ? 

Did he hide his face before the ineffable brightness ? 


262 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Not he ! but he sought with eager inquiry the face 
of God. 

No angel attracted his gaze. 

No secondary thing diverted his search. 

God alone must answer to him, and his intrepid 
spirit would invade God’s own glory and presence ! 

So it came to pass, in his dream, that he concen- 
trated all his penetration upon the surrounding glory, 
and pressed his way, none offering him resistance, to 
the very throne itself, and lo ! thereon sat, in all sweet 
serenity, his own mother ! 

The dream and the search ended here, and it was 
a long time ere he could convince himself that it was 
only a dream. 

Was it only a dream ? 

Let your wise philosophers utter their learned plati- 
tudes explanatory. What then .? 

Reality is of spirit, and the dream is a reality, with 
all its relations' and revelations. 

The young man sought, not his mother, but the 
reasons for her disappearance, at the foot of God’s 
throne. 

He prosecuted his search where alone lost joys 
are found — into the ideal presence of the infinite 
God. 

Could the human ideal God console him for the loss 
of his loved, his loving, his real mother ? No. Why, 
then, seek his face ? 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


263 


Answer who will ! 

He turned to gaze on God, and beheld his mother ! 

Is that unpardonable ? 

Did the genius of his dream deceive him ? 

It might have been an unexpected denouement, but 
it was natural, gracious, convincing, and infinitely 
better than seeing God. 

Had he seen God, he would still long and search 
for his mother ; but, having found her^ he could now 
and forevermore, without difficulty, believe in, and 
offer worship to, God, although forever unseen ! 

Oh, human hearts, full to bursting with doubts and 
fears, with anxieties and conflicts, cease your chal- 
lenge of Truth, and Life, and Immortality ; shut 
your weary, outward eyes, and open wide the 
spiritual. Shut fast the outer ears, and listen within 
for the sweet, familiar voices of the loved, who never 
were so really near as at this moment, when they 
seem so far away ! 

Do a little dreaming in your wide-awake life. 

Cease denying the substantial reality of what, in 
happy dreams only, falls beneath your observation. 

Awake to the fact that, since the desirable is the 
life of which you dream, the life you are is the false, 
and the life that you dream is the true ! 

What then .? 

The ladder which Jacob saw, with its foot invisible 
in the dark conditions of earth, and its top invisible 


264 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


in the glory of heaven, with angels coming down and 
going up, was all a dream ! 

Yet, I say, that the ladder is present in every life, 
and up it and down it come and go the dear angels, 
bearing gifts to and fro to you, and to you, and to 
you, and to you ! And if you cannot recognize your 
own in some approaching angel, why then just give 
your spirit its liberty, and press your search until you 
cease your questioning at the throne of God ; — only to 
find at last, what you may know at first, your mother, 
your father, your sister, your brother, your loved one, 
your very lost life — not lost but waiting for, and upon 
you I 

III. 

I do not permit that you should forget that we left 
Cecil gazing with clear, enlarged, and fascinated eyes 
upon the long-lost mother, seated where he, in his 
half-sight, expected to find God 

By abstraction, by inwardliness, you can enter 
upon the comprehension of the adoration by which 
Cecil was inspired. 

For an immortal moment the need of God appeared 
not. 

For, look you ! he had fallen upon the highest 
demand and desire of his nature. 

He had no longer controversy with God. 

He had found his mother. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


265 


His heart had reached home. 

His life had reached its source and before him, in 
all perfection, was the first object of his love — and its 
constant inspiration. Now, some truth remains to 
you from here — surely this : that had Cecil found 
God, had his eyes fixed their gaze in open scrutiny 
upon the face of Him whom eye of mortal hath never, 
and can never see, the hunger of heart would still 
have gnawed, and yearned, and demanded in eternal 
unsatisfaction. 

Oh ! Let God be God ; but the fullest and perfect- 
est conception of this Being is too meagre and too 
little, to fill the void in a human heart, yearning for its 
Mother ! 

And, because it is human. 

I do not mean, you must know, a mere earthly 
relationship mother, but my truth is all comprehend- 
ing, and affirms the beginning, the continuance, the 
endlessness of the sweet love-tie, out of which life 
evolves, and which finds its best and appropriate 
expression in the word. Mother. 

This is the highest ideal word — and motherhood 
is that ideal realized. 

It is the Alpha and the Omega (draw your pencil 
through the latter word which suggests a finish when 
there is no end.) It is Alpha infinitum, properly found 
in Cecil’s discovery. Human ties hold forever. 

Wherefore not .? 


266 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Can you suggest anything better, more desirable, 
more needful ? 

What rises into life from the motherhood of love, 
ceases never. 

The word that expresses God is — Love. 

Should you say Love is God ? 

Why not ? 

One dare not say God is love-like, but Love ! 

One need not say. Love is God-like, but God I 

You are invited to share in Cecils joy, as you can- 
not help sensing his astonishment. Speechless, he 
inclined toward the bosom which had borne him, 
and the open-arms which had fondled his earliest 
life. 

All bitterness passed from him. 

He even forgave God without reserve, for what he 
had denounced as robbery, now that restoration had 
come to pass. 

He dismissed forever all idea of vengeance, all 
murmurings, and withdrew his challenge of Provi- 
dence. The recovery of his mother compensated for 
the loss of God. 

The sweet fullness that possessed him reconciled 
him to the universe as it was, and is, for in that 
supreme moment of felicity, he bethought him that 
all sons and daughters had mothers, and that there- 
fore all souls touched. 

Sweet sound waves of good-fellowship swept over 


ANGELS' VISITS. 267 

and through him, and were like the intoxicating music 
when Love plays upon the lute. 

Silence ! yes, silence in heaven ! 

You have heard of it, the unusual but not unac- 
countable fact that once for a space, there was silence 
in heaven. It was when Cecil found his mother. 

Whose fault is it that the happiest moments, the 
richest concepts, the grandest possibilities, appear to 
you mortals in your dreams ? 

You see how persistent we are, for, when failing to 
awaken men to privilege and duty in the light of day, 
we steal their spirits by the subtle fashion of a dream, 
that, by any means we may inspire a hope, or dissi- 
pate a cloud, or impart a lesson. An ancient people 
once characterized their joy of a great deliverance by 
saying, as they sought to describe their exultation, 
** we were like them that dreamed.” Adieu. 


268 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE TIME OF HARVEST. 

The weeks have sped along — and, engrossed as 
we have been with our spiritual and intellectual dis- 
cussions, we have had little time to watch the daily 
progress of the burdened fields. But farmer Dan 
and his able co-workers, have been in constant at- 
tendance, and all things are ready, and the harvest 
begins. 

The box mill is working full time, sawing material 
for all kinds of boxes or crates from the cypress wood 
of which we have abundance. 

We make two kinds of crates for the conveyance of 
our vegetables to the Northern and Western markets. 
One is small, made of half-inch pine heads and 
middles, with thin cypress slats, and to hold a scant 
bushel of beans (snap), beets, onions, peas, etc. ; 
while the larger crates, made of heavier material — 
heads and middles 1x12 and 18 inches deep, with 
slats 4 inches wide by ^ inch thick, and 36 inches long 
— are made to hold the contents of a regulation barrel. 

In these, potatoes, cauliflower, and cabbages are 
packed carefully and snugly. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 269 

To buy these boxes at the factories or mills, as 
nearly all of our gardeners must do, involves a con- 
siderable outlay of ready cash. 

Prices range from I5 to I7 per 100 crates, knocked 
down, for the small size ; and from $15 to |i8 per 
100 for the large, or barrel, crates. 

Where one can manufacture his own, with material 
convenient, the cost may be set down at just one- 
half, which is a very important saving if one culti- 
vates on a large scale. Taking cost of material, 
where everything is bought — nails, labor of making 
up, marking, etc. — these crates cost the farmer in 
cash $10 and $20 per 100 respectively, as they stand 
ready to be packed with the different products of his 
fields. 

The cost of gathering and packing is considerable, 
but in our case not extra, because all this, indeed, all 
work of every kind, is done by our regular force at 
uniform wages of $i per da}^ for ordinary, and $1.25 
for more skilled labor, such as working about ma- 
chinery, or where one proves to be extra smart at 
packing. 

Packing vegetables is an art. The condition of 
your stuff, when it is received at the distant market, 
will depend very much upon the manner of packing. 

Hence the best hands are employed in this depart- 
ment, and over this work the farmer exercises greatest 
care and vigilance. 


270 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


Good judgment, good taste, and skill are required, 
therefore, in your packer, and it will pay you many 
times over to advance the wages of such an one to 
even twice the regular figure during the harvest season. 

Quick, safe transportation is the next desideratum, 
and here-anent is our tug-of-war. Every farmer in 
Florida could tell you harrowing tales of delays, care- 
lessness, and every conceivable delinquency on the 
part of transportation companies, which, in many 
instances, doubtless, are unavoidable, but, for the 
most part, must be set down to inexperience, lack of 
appreciation of the value of the stuff transported, and 
sheer indifference to the interests of the shipper. 

Careless handling en route, lack of suitable accom- 
modation in cars and steam vessels, together with the 
certainty of transportation charges in hand, are felt, 
on the part of the farmers, to be answerable for very 
much of the loss which is annually inflicted on them 
by the different transportation companies. 

If to all this is added the unconscionable rates 
exacted, you can begin to sympathize with the 
demands of this worthy class of citizens, whose im- 
portant industries supply so largely the needs of the 
people, and contribute the heaviest tolls to public 
carriers. The exactions of transportation companies 
upon the producing classes have (especially here in 
Florida) reached a point where one of two things must 
ensue : — either a great reduction in traftic rates, or 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


271 


the utter destruction of the particular industry under 
view. 

I know that we farmers are held up as a class of 
growlers and dissatisfied sore-heads, but, without 
resenting the gratuity, 1 desire to emphasize every 
word here said, and to record my grievous lament 
that our complaints and appeals fall with such dull 
monotone upon the leather ears of the great corpora- 
tions which fatten upon our blood and labor. 

Patience is, par excellence^ the virtue of the tiller of 
the soil. 

It is instilled into him with every day s lesson of 
labor and result, but when he sees his energies and 
his industries throttled by the mailed hand of injus- 
tice, and inordinate, unconscionable greed, patience 
changes her countenance, and the impulse of self- 
preservation mantles the brow with the flush of manly 
resistance. 

To meet the demand for dividends on much and 
many times watered stocks, our transportation cor- 
porations do not hesitate to apply the torture of exac- 
tion to the industrial masses to the very point of 
destruction of the very industries by which life is 
maintained, smiling the while with sardonic triumph 
in the pinched faces of their victims. 

Every reasonable method has been employed to 
bring the corporations to a just appreciation of the 
facts — without apparent success. Conferences have 


ANGELS^ VISITS, 


272 

oeen held, statements of grievances have been made, 
railway commissions and the Inter-State Commerce 
Commission have been invoked by the disheartened 
toilers in vain. 

The case seems hopeless. 

No quality approaching justice and fair-dealing 
appears in sight in the bearing, the attitude, or the 
action of these misdirected monopolies. 

Our recent legislature, with remarkable unwisdom, 
instead of facing the emergency, as was hoped and 
urged, abolished the railway commission of the state, 
under the specious plea of inefficiency or inability, 
being powerless to effect reform in the unholy com- 
binations of capital against the people in the great 
traffic lines of the state. 

Continued poverty and slavery are entailed by this 
shameful surrender to the arbitrary advances of 
monopolies, and, by this and that, the patient, plod- 
ding farmer sees no rift in the cloud that envelops 
him, and whose dark folds shut out the light of hope. 

What is true here in Florida is true elsewhere all 
over the land, and the wisest minds and stoutest 
hearts are breaking beneath the unspeakable burdens 
which injustice and inhumanity are weighting down 
upon the best and truest people in the land. 

The result can easily be forecast and foreseen. 

These burdens must be lifted. 

The wrongs complained of must be righted. 


ANGELS'' VISITS. 


273 

Revolution, the last, and, in this case, most 
righteous, resort of the people, is in the air. 

It is gathering shape and momentum, and must 
soon utter its shibboleth from all eminences, and lay 
down its righteous ultimatum. 

The Alliance Movement, ridiculed on the one hand, 
and feared on the other, is but the beginning of con- 
servation offerees which will eventuate in the enforced 
settlement of many long accumulating scores against 
public prosperity, public peace, and the rights of men. 
Great parties, formed within political lines, will yet 
listen to this voice of the people, or else suffer disin- 
tegration by its thundering command. 

We farmers of the South are, most of all,' conserva- 
tive. Political ties hold us with strange tenacity, 
because of obtrusive questions, facts and fears, that 
are peculiar to our social and political state. But 
there is abroad a new schoolmaster, and his name is 
Monopoly, whose lessons, enforced with dehumaniz- 
ing and iron-handed indifference, deaf alike to the 
appeals of enforced poverty and protests against 
wholesale robbery and confiscation of home and 
every dear right, are fast weakening those ties po- 
litical which are supposed to bind us hand and foot 
to the dictatorship of party spirit and leadership. 

Our conscience is free. 

Our manhood, although sorely tried and much 

humiliated, remains uncorrupted and incorruptible, 
18 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


274 

and we are surely gravitating toward the new banner, 
on whose ample folds we see emblazoned : — 

Protection to our Industries by the government of 
Monopolies. 

The legend is high-sounding and much-embracing, 
but it has a true, humane ring to it, and, by every 
token, will lead us into enlarged freedom and equili- 
brium of rights and privileges, where, at least, we 
may draw breath, untaxed therefor. 

We are seriously considering why great monopolies, 
on which depend public prosperity and public safety 
(to a degree), should be owned and controlled by in- 
dividuals, and not by the state — that is, the people. 

We observe that the great political parties of the 
country either cannot, or dare not, grapple with this 
fast rising power of consolidated and confederated 
wealth — anchoring ownership of traffic lines and other 
public necessities —in the hands of a few individuals. 

This power, employed as it is in the most un- 
righteous methods of speculation upon the labors and 
natural rights of the people, assumes the role of 
Omnipotence, in trampling down all law, and all 
justice, and is omnipresent in its subtle lines and 
methods of oppression, looting the innocent and in- 
dustrious, and striking down the irreverent protestant, 
and by the breath of its mouth answering public 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


275 

appeal by its defiant and original decree — “ The pub- 
lic be damned ! 

The public refuses to “be damned,” and hence the 
muttering of reformation thunder. Hence, the new 
banner with the new device. Hence, the awakening 
of the people, by whose industries all else thrives. 
Hence, the rallying from all sections toward a move- 
ment, which, unless all signs fail, will develop into a 
new party, cohered by the law of universal brother- 
hood, directed by the genius of all rights for all men 
and monopolies for none, and ownership, control, 
and direction of all public commerce and traffic lines 
by the government of the people, in the interest of the 
people. 

You will not expect a plain farmer to indicate to 
you, dear reader, how all these wonders shall come to 
pass. My purpose is accomplished, in this place, 
where I have formulated, as best I can, into plain 
words, what I, in harmony with my class, all through 
this Southland, sense and interpret, as the spirit and 
voice that agitate the very air about us. 

Doubtless, the task outlined is a great one, but this 
is a great age, and we are a great people. 

To emphasize and make good for all time the Dec- 
laration of Independence, formulated and defended 
by our fathers, under the masterful leadership of the 
Jeffersons, the Washingtons, and the Madisons of the 
revolutionary era of our nation, was a great task. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


276 

But it was gloriously performed, and quickly, too. 

’ To prove the stability of our institutions and the 
indestructibility of nationality, and, at the same time, 
raise to freedom and citizenship four millions, of black 
slaves, was a great task. 

But it was accomplished, and the blood shed in 
fratricidal strife, under the benediction of that Power 
which makes for Righteousness, shall sanctify and 
make sacred and unassailable, the symbol of our 
nationality, until the kingdoms of the world, in happy 
concord, shall merge into unity under the banner of 
the Christ that is to come. 

So, and as certainly, will this new declaration of 
rights be lettered forth and emphasized ; this new 
investiture for our deliverance, be accomplished ; this 
new salvation come to us. And, because of the 
brightness and power of our civilization, the majesty 
of national conscience, the justice and humanity of 
all the demands set forth — and, because of the perfect 
harmony of this great movement with those laws 
which answer for the uttermost progress and happi- 
ness attainable by human nature — let us believe that 
the great result will be attained peacefully, as the 
night merges into morning. 

The questions pro and con that will arise here-anent, 
and that are now confronting the minds of statesmen 
and publicists, will, in the sharp and exhaustive dis- 
cussions soon to become current, be made simple and 


ANGELS'^ V IS ITS. 


277 


plain to the masses, and we shall arrive at right solu- 
tions by a sort of liberal tuition of our intuition. 

In the meanwhile our harvest must be gathered, 
and the duties of to-day must not be neglected, 
nor its blessings undervalued, in our dreaming and 
prophecying of the better and brighter to-morrow. 

Note. The reader is requested to remember that this book 
was written twenty-three years ago, — and its prophecies are now 
being fulfilled — after much political and industrial conflict, which 
is still raging but with the light of triumph breaking in. 

Public conscience now demands not the government but the de- 
struction of monopolies, and it heartens every patriotic man and 
woman to feel and know that this and other vested evils will 
soon be hospitably engulfed in the sea of oblivion, whose wild 
waves shall sing their requiem forever. 


The Editor. 


278 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

LAST WORDS. 

He comes ! He comes ! by ancient bards foretold ; 

. Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold ! 

He from thick films shall purge the visual ray. 

And on the sightless eyeballs, pour the day.— Pope. 

Our home circle is broken. 

Dr. Graeme, having accomplished his purpose, left 
some weeks ago for England. We greatly regretted 
his departure, but as he intends to make a favorable 
report to his principals on the phosphate beds of our 
state, it is quite within the probabilities that he will 
return soon, and complete the purchase of certain 
large tracts of land, upon which he has secured liberal 
options. 

We shall hope, therefore, to see him again. 

Comfort Miller accompanied Mary Van Elt as far as 
Jacksonville, and, after seeing her safely bestowed 
in the vestibuled train for the North, returned to us for 
a few days at the farm, thoughtfully reasoning that 
Miriam and I would be glad to have him do so, thus 
graduating us to our condition of comparative lone- 
liness. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


279 


It was kindly and graciously done, but then we are 
accustomed to Comfort’s considerate ways and loving 
thoughtfulness toward us. 

I feel that I am growing old, notwithstanding 
Miriam’s protest to the contrary, and I shall soon 
be looking among the blessed angels for Miriam’s 
mother. 

It is no small satisfaction to me to feel that I can 
safely commit this devoted and dutiful child to the 
protection and love of a man like Comfort Miller. 

They both declare, of course, that they base a large 
part of their happiness on long life for me, and I am 
sure they mean it. 

The fact is, I am, in one respect, like Paul, when 
he debated whether to go or to stay, as a measure of 
happiness and duty — although he felt that to be with 
Christ would be far better, and that to die would be 
gain. I presume he was rightly inspired, and I have 
about settled down upon his conclusions, and will 
wait with patience the time of my departure. 

One thing I desire, and that is, that when the sum- 
mons comes for me, the Angel will be patient, and 
allow me to have Tom and Miriam and Comfort, 
Mary Van Elt, and, if possible. Brother Caleb, near, 
to receive my last testimony and my blessing, and to 
bear witness to my triumph. 

We have had several letters from Brother Caleb, 
who is doing great good on Indian River. 


200 


ANGELS' VISITS. 


He is a prime favorite among the intelligent settlers, 
as well as among the original citizens of that beautiful 
country. 

His letters glow with new light, and seem warm 
with a new spirit. 

He is becoming pronounced in his new experience, 
is Caleb, and declares that he is daily the recipient of 
new evidences of the truth which we now hold in 
common. 

He has fallen in with a number of spiritualists (the 
woods are full of them) on Indian River, and speaks 
of their fellowship and co-operation in terms of grati- 
tude and confidence. 

He declares that he is a better preacher and a better 
man since the experiences he enjoyed in our sanc- 
tuary, and he sends his grateful blessing to Mary Van 
Elt, whom he calls “that beautiful child of the angels 
and of God,” and to Miriam he sends special mes- 
sages of fatherly and pastoral love. 

All this is charming and inexpressibly gratifying to 
us, and our hearts go out to God and the angels in 
incense of thanksgiving, praise, and gratitude. 

A letter from Brother Caleb has come to be the 
signal for singing a new doxology, in which the 
angels join. 

We are now quite settled into our normal condition 
at the farm, and the days are filled with ordinary 
duties of the field and the household. 


ANGELS^ VISITS. 


281 


We pass the evening hours reading together, or in 
recalling and discussing the great lessons which, in 
part, you know, and in loving interchange on matters 
that are constantly on our hearts. 

I have read the preceding pages to Miriam, and am 
pleased to record her approval, and her sweet prayer 
also that to all who may kindly read them may come 
the joy of the salvation which we realize. 

I do not expect all my critics to be as lenient and 
one-sided as Miriam, but to have the benediction of 
so loving a confrere is an augury for good, even for 
an unpretentious book. 

I have purposely said nothing of Miriam’s own 
mediumship because she is so near to me, but I would 
have you know that she has a beautiful spiritual un- 
foldment, and is daily becoming more and more sen- 
sitive and responsive to spirit influences, especially 
toward our own loved ones who have preceded us in 
life. 

This is most gratifying to me, because I cannot 
help thinking of the time, not far off, when my own 
caresses of my loved child must be in spirit and from 
the spirit side, and the natural pain of separation is 
almost neutralized by the thought of immediate and 
continuous recognition, and conscious communion 
after death’s work is done, for me. 

We have this comfort in respect of Miriam’s mother, 
whose presence we feel, and whose familiar voice we 


282 ANGELS' VISITS, 

sometimes think we hear, and whose face often 
appears to us, all glorious as of yore. 

I want to repeat what I have elsewhere said, that 
I rejoice in the evidences of progress — along all lines 
— that spring up with stalwart bound on every side — 
especially in spiritual things. 

I have unshaken faith in the future and in man, and 
do most devoutly believe that the truth, as we know 
it, but in its greater fullness, will triumph universally, 
which means that humanity shall eventually rise into 
the perfect state, and evil and misery shall be known 
no more. 

I hail with enthusiasm the evidences of spiritual 
enlargement in the Church, in organic Christendom, 
in all directions, and under all banners. 

Of course, isolated as I am, and far removed from 
the great centres of attraction and intellectual and 
moral movements, I cannot be supposed to know 
fully to what extent my satisfaction is well founded ; 
while my occupation and circumstances do not admit 
of much outlay for ordinary means of information, 
such as books and periodicals and journals of the 
times. I sense the struggle here on my farm in 
Florida, and I hear the high-sounding peals of prog- 
ress and victory, and they thrill my life and com- 
plete my joy. 

Sometimes I see reports of great liberal sermons 
preached by the foremost thinkers, priests, and 


ANGELS' VISITS. 283 

ministers of all schools of thought in Christendom, 
and I read and read all the moving lines, and 
between the lines, and commit to memory the glow- 
ing thoughts, as the soldier fills his knapsack and 
canteen for use in the battle hour on some doubtful 
to-morrow. The inspiration is of the highest, and it 
would seem that intolerance, superstition, and bigotry 
must soon give way before the advancing spirit of the 
new Christ, who is indeed the old, returned in the 
power of the Spirit. 

I see him standing at the graves mouth of the 
Lazarus of humanity in the nineteenth century, and I 
hear his command, which even the dead obeys, 
“Lazarus, come forth.” 

And forth comes the dead, but he is bound about 
with ecclesiastical bandages, and grave clothes, and 
creedal fetters. 

But this Christ of the new age hath all power and 
all authority to restore, to regenerate, and to liberate, 
and so I hear him say to the fetters, and to the 
bandages, and to the blind leaders of the blind, and 
to the orderly undertakers for the dead : — 

“ Loose him and let him go.'’ 


THE END. 




THE AFTERWARD. 


285 


THE AFTERWARD 

GOLDEN LIGHT AND HIS REVIEWERS 

The readers of my little book, — “Angels’ Visits to 
My Farm in Florida,” published a little over a year ago, 
will agree with me that the Publishers brought it out in 
a most satisfactory and beautiful form. I am under re- 
newed obligations to them for collecting and sending to 
me a large number of notices and criticisms of my ven- 
ture, a few of which I will proceed to embalm to be looked 
upon, perhaps, by interested friends, after many years. 
They form for me a mirror, so to speak, in which I can 
realize with more or less complacency, what Robert Burns 
prayed that all mankind might do : — 

“ Oh, wad some pow’r the giftie gi’e us 
To see oursel’s as ithers see us.” 

The picture I see in this mirror may be called “ compos- 
ite,” and if I fail to recognize at first glance all my fea- 
tures, a longer, steadier gaze will doubtless bring me into 
the state of perfect Self-recognition. To this end a cer- 
tain grade of critics beget them.selves, and have their 
anonymous place in the world. 

Perhaps it is a misfortune that no fixed standard exists 
for them to m.easure themselves by, being left to their 
moods, prejudices, affiliations, intellectual rarities, and — 
the state of their hearts; therefore they are not to be held 
as Ishmaelites by authors and would-be-authors of books 
and things, but as a very human order of guardian angels 
albeit cumbered with common flesh, — and, in rare in- 
stances, possessing brains somewhat ill distributed. 


286 


THE AFTERWARD. 


A-Iy personal acquaintance with the critic caste is chiefly 
confined to truck farmers, fruit growers, and land-break- 
ers, and of these my near neighbor, Jonah Noshucks, is 
the chief, and next to him stands old man Gray’s son 
Jimmy, who failed as a dentist but has made a great suc- 
cess in land-breaking. 

Perhaps you do not see the fitness of this. Well, it is 
this way: Noshucks criticises and abuses his land be- 
cause of its poverty, which he never tries to enrich, calling 
it everything mean and low down. I have seen him jump 
on the unresisting barren spot with both feet to give 
eir.phasis to his insane ravings. His brains are in his 
heels, as you might say. 

Jimmy Gray is a different sort of critic. 

“ I plum failed as a dentist for humans,” he told me 
one day, “ but I’m a howlin’ success at pullin’ natur’s 
teeth ’thout hurtin’. I kin pul up, roots an’ all, a saw 
pametto every five minits with my new foreseps an’ ole 
Jake” (his mule), “an’ never cut a ugly gash in natur’s 
face.” 

And so he could, for I saw him and Jake do it for 
Sam Jencks — a half-acre palmetto lot — Saw Palmetto, 
mind — and the job was done in a couple of weeks. It 
was a sleek and clean job, and Sam took one hundred 
crates of beans off that patch the next season. But that’s 
not the point at all. The point is how Jimmy Gray treated 
nature as a toothpuller and the kindly compliments he 
paid the new field after the pulling and the soothing. 

“ She’s pockmarked sum an’ dented, but ain’t she a 
buty,” exclaimed Jimmy. Sam and I said in one breath, 
Amen. 

The new field said “ Thank you kindly,” leastways that’s 
how I seemed to hear it. 

Yes, there are critics and critics. 

I am aware that the treatment of reviews and criticisms 
of a book in the way I propose, is unusual if not new, 
but as Jed says, — “One good turn observes another.” 


THE AFTERWARD. 


287 


So, if I form a circle of my good friends, the belated 
critics, and take each one by the hand with forbearing 
hospitality, I shall show that I bear no malice toward 
them ; sweeten the pains of sober second thoughts, and 
encourage them, after an inspired formula, to add to their 
faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temper- 
ance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godli- 
ness, and to godliness (spirituality) brotherly kindness; — 
and to brotherly kindness Charity, 

I confess that my feelings droop a little under the 
charge of disloyalty to truth, and that I am an obtrusive 
vender of absurdities and nonsense, and, but for the con- 
straining presence of better knowledge, sharp retorts 
would blister my tongue and produce nettle-rash or worse, 
where a soft answer, if you have mastered the knack of 
making it, is ever the better way. 

After mudi schooling I feel that I have mastered the 
art. Truth, dear critics, is many-sided, and we — I mean 
my kind — who make up the majority of mankind, unlike 
some of you, are not endowed with as many eyes as the 
trilobite, nor in our brains resides the “ cube of human 
intellect.” 

As to ignorance, bless your hearts ! it all depends upon 
the point of view. That great and good man, John Wes- 
ley, Uncle Caleb admitted, once preached a sermon “ On 
the cause and cure of earthquakes,” which many learned 
critics would pronounce the height of absurdity, yet Mr. 
Wesley gave organic life and wise regulating laws to a 
most progressive, religious community, faithful and wise 
to this day — in spots. 

My old acquaintance, the Rev, James M. Buckley, Doc- 
tor of Divinity, would class such spiritual fellowships as 
we realize with satanic obsessions, I fear, and yet he ably 
conducts the chief “Advocate and Journal” (once edited 
by the dear old friend of my boyhood — the elder Thomas 
E. Bond) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of 
whose cardinal doctrines is, the personal witnessing of 


288 


THE AFTERWARD. 


the Holy Ghost, — the Third Person in the Godhead, in 
the believer’s consciousness to his regeneration, and birth 
into the family of God ! 

I will begin my communion with my brethren of the 
Church, both from choice and duty, and, while I regret 
their almost unanimous condemnation, I hope I am Chris- 
tian enough to take it in good part, knowing that the 
leaven of superstition still lurks — a sad heredity — like 
the light that is darkness in many otherwise faithful sol- 
diers of the Cross. 

(From The C ongregationalist , Boston, Mass., June 2, ’92.) 

One hardly knows whether to count Angels’ Visits to 
My Farm in Florida, by Golden Light, as a story or a 
plea for Spiritualism. Much of the larger part of it is 
the latter, yet, on the whole, it is in story form. It is 
reverent in spirit, but inconclusive and uncommonly tire- 
some reading. 

Hardly a recommendation and yet falls short of em- 
phatic condemnation. To be “ reverent in spirit but in- 
conclusive ” is better than to be conclusive and irreverent. 
To be “tiresome reading” and “uncommonly” so is in- 
deed too common in books — and even in religious jour- 
nals, and should be mended. In this case it is clearly not 
my fault. Ever since the war, one way and another, I have 
managed to obtain The C ongregationalist occasionally, 
and I must say that it is never an unwelcome nor a tire- 
some visitor. My old friend and near neighbor. Profes- 
sor S., used to riddle it sometimes in his quaint way be- 
cause of its “ old fogyism,” but somehow it always met 
a want in my credulous, simple nature. In reading it 
I often think of Christopher North’s saying about the 
book called the “ Pleasures of Memory, — you take it at 
a nop — and pursue your journey.” 

(From The Watchman (Baptist), Boston, July 28, ’92.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida, by “Golden 
Light,” is a title that asks to be taken more literally than 


THE AFTERWARD. 


289 


would occur to a cursory reader. The author relates some 
of his experience as a farmer in Florida, and makes prac- 
tical suggestions for the benefit of any who may incline 
to follow his lead. But he is a believer in spiritism 
(necromancy), and has such faith in the reality of inter- 
course with the spirit world, that, in his view, the trans- 
figuration of Christ is only an example of what is pos- 
sible to us. He subjects the New Testament to the torture 
necessary to make it utter his views, and his book is a 
queer medley of sense and nonsense. After a common 
style of fiction, a Methodist preacher is introduced, who 
is converted to belief in the “ spirits,” after having de- 
nounced it as of the devil. We confess mote sympathy 
with his previous opinion than with his modified views. 

The above springs from an eminent Christian source, 
but you wouldn’t think it, would you ? This critic calls 
me a believer in “ spiritism (necromancy) ” and so con- 
signs the book to a modern Index Expurgatorius, and 
does not flinch from linking author and book with the 
“ Devil.” Think of that now. Uncle Caleb, and tremble ! 
I would like to ask the Watchman to point out a single 
doctrine in Angels’ Visits contrary to Holy Scripture, 
and contrary to the teachings and practice of the Chris- 
tian Church nearest to the days of the Christ, and con- 
trary to the faith and worship of the true believers in 
Christ in every succeeding age. Mr. Watchman, did you 
ever read Neander’s History of Christianity? I reckon 
not, and so I will quote him for your benefit. 

“ Communion between the living and the dead was, in 
truth (among the early Christians), a communion for 
eternity, the bond of which, resting in the eternal, could 
be sundered by no power of death or hell. 

Christians have a consciousness of constant invisible 
communion with those from whom they are outwardly 
separated.” 

Of course you would denounce the authors of “ Guesses 
at Truth” for saying that 

“ Much of the world’s wisdom is still acquired by ne- 
cromancy ; by consulting the oracular dead.” 


290 


THE AFTERWARD. 


I do not adopt the word “ necromancy,” it seems to bring 
back the dark ages of Christian persecution of innocent 
persons, here and there, as witches, and delivering them 
to the devil by faggots and other efficient methods. 

If the reviewer in The Watchman should ever see these 
words I hope he will soften that part of his criticism 
which charges me with torturing The New Testament 
to make it utter my views and so forth. I would assure 
him that I am a devout student of that sacred book and 
hope love with all my heart the divine man of whom it 
testifies. What if I should retort and say that you Bap- 
tists “subject the New Testament to the torture necessary 
to make it utter your views ” on baptism and the exclusive 
right to the Lord’s Supper? I fear you would resent the 
insinuation hotly, as is the way with sectarian polemicals 
— but I beg you will not break out now since I make no 
railing accusation and am only turning the other cheek. 

(From The Interior, Chicago.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida, by “ Golden 
Light.” 

A “ red-hot ” text-book of spiritualism thrust upon an 
unsuspecting public, who are given no note of warning 
of what is to come until they find themselves in the midst 
of it. Nor is it even well written. The author, in our 
opinion, did well to conceal his identity. 

My friend, the Reverend Dr. Hasty told me yesterday 
that The Interior is a very able and a soundly religious 
paper. As I never saw its form, nor any proof of its 
ability other than this criticism of me and my book, you 
will not blame me for thinking it rather wobbly. Well, 
what difference should it make whether or not an author 
conceals his identity, especially when what he “ thrusts 
upon an unsuspecting public, who are given no note of 
warning of what is to come” is not “even well written”? 

The book is a “ red-hot text-book of spiritualism,” how- 
ever, according to this critic, which discovery settles its 


THE AFTERWARD. 


291 


fate. I wonder what this ferocious censurer would have 
done to me if I had not concealed my identity? Local 
atmosphere accounts for much, both in religion and intel- 
ligence, so I must not harshly condemn what seems redo- 
lent of the slaughter-house and the shambles. 


(From The Churchman.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

The dedication of this book to the rector of St. 
Thomas’s church. New York, arrests attention next after 
the title-page, but after reading on a little way one turns 
back to find : “ I take the liberty of dedicating this little 
book to you, etc.” We should say so. The “ farm ” is 
the best part of the book, and the least part. One may 
learn the author’s opinion that the “ high, rolling pine- 
lands ” of Florida are a snare and delusion, and that, for 
truck-farming, the “ low flat lands ” command the atten- 
tion of investors. There are suggestions about “ seed- 
beds,” “ planting for the early market,” “ transplanting 
beets,” which seem practical ; and sundry advertisements, 
perhaps even more practical, of patented agricultural im- 
plements; and there is “jessamine and honeysuckle, arbu- 
tus and delicate ferns, a white lotus or two from the pond 
down in the meadow, and a bunch of blue violets from 
Palm Island ” which are redolent of nature’s poetry. 
There is even a sermon, for Sunday lay-reading at home, 
not more unsound than some we have heard from New 
York pulpits (not St. Thomas’s), and certainly more en- 
tertaining than any “ the Rev. Caleb Soyer, our minister,” 
would be likely to preach, if “ Brother Golden ” does not 
misrepresent that gentleman. But the rest of the book is 
likely to entertain only the transcendental psychologists 
who conduct the societies for psychical research. The 
“ angels ” are not angels, but ghosts, and the author should 
have taken Karl Emil Franzo’s advice to the novelist: 
“ He will do well to bear in mind that no good can result 
from the indiscriminate introduction of states and phe- 
nomena that arise in unusual and quasi-morbid circum- 
stances into the every-day lives of every-day people.” 


The bigoted and scholarly gentlemen who conduct the 
Protestant Episcopal “ Churchman,” should keep guard 


292 


THE AFTERWARD. 


over the flippant pens of their corps of reviewers. They 
should caution them to keep ever before their eyes the 
golden rule of the Master. They should cause them to 
study the nature of angels, and also the character of 
“ ghosts ” and their real relationships to the Church. 

The " Churchman ” informs us that the angels who so 
graciously visited us at the farm, were not angels, but 
ghosts. What then? They were spirits, even as the 
Church teacheth; among them, dear familiar ones, whose 
mission is, as ever, to bless and comfort. 

Dear brethren, here are some words spoken by sturdy, 
quaint. Church of England Bishop Hall, over two hun- 
dred years ago, which I beg to commend as heartily as 
I endorse them to you : — 

“ There is no reason to doubt that the good angels are 
as assiduously present with us for our good as the evil 
angels are for our hurt : since we know that evil spirits 
cannot be more full of malice to work our harm than the 
blessed angels are full of charity and good offices to man- 
kind. The evil are only let loose to tempt us by a per- 
mission of the Almighty ; whereas, the good are, by a 
gracious delegation from God, charged with our custody. 
That evil spirits are ever at hand, ready upon all occa- 
sions to present their service to us for the purpose of 
leading us into sin, appears too plainly in the temptations 
which they continually inject into our thoughts; in their 
real and speedy operations with the spells and charms of 
their wicked clients, which are no less efifectually answered 
by them than natural causes are by their ordinary and 
regular productions. It must needs follow, therefore, that 
the good angels are as close to us, and as inseparable from 
us, and though zve see neither, yet he that hath spiritual 
eyes perceives them both, and is accordingly affected by 
their presence. The language of spirits are thoughts. 
Why do I not entertain them in my secret meditations, 
and so behave myself that I may ever hold a fair corre- 
spondence zvith those invisible companions, and expect 
from them all those precious offices zvhicli they are accus- 
tomed to perform, and at last be conveyed by them to 
Heaven and glory? Oh! my soul, thou art a spirit as 
they are ; do thou ever see them as they see thee ; and 
so speak to them as they speak to thee ! ” 


THE AFTERWARD. 


293 


A word personal: — 

The author of “ Angels’ Visits,” in dedicating his 
book to the beloved Rector of St Thomas’s Church, New 
York, took no unwarranted liberty. The relations be- 
tween them, running back to sweet youth, although 
strained by cruel war, were never broken, — and although 
the author has not seen the Rector since the alarms of 
war sounded over our beloved land, he never felt surer 
of his affection and confidence than he does at this mo- 
ment, 

•The Churchman’s insinuation therefore is sheer imper- 
tinence, and savors of a spirit utterly inconsistent with 
its aims and professions, and outside the functions of 
honest criticism. 

The Churchman may be sure that this poor author does 
not for a moment question the soundness of the pulpit 
ministrations of his friend, the Rector of St. Thomas, or 
that he would claim his sympathy with the peculiar views 
(if such they be) of the book dedicated to him. 

But The Churchman is at fault in its estimate of Rev. 
Caleb Soyer, — and must have skipped what, most truth- 
fully, “ Brother Golden ” said of him. 

“ Not learned, not a dialectician, nor a theologian of 
the schools, but a simple, ardent, devout, self-sacrificing, 
cross-bearing follower of Jesus as he understands him. 
He has an intense spirit, and, when excited, commands 
words that burn and thoughts that breathe. As a preacher 
he does not excel, having no gift of exposition, but as 
an exhorter he has few equals, and his appeals to sinners 
are thunderbolts of power. He would make a grand 
redeemer if a readines? to die for mankind were the 
prime requisite.” (P. 68.) 

Since he was thus sketched by my hand, he has en- 
tered into the realization of Bishop Hall’s holy yearnings, 
and you should just hear one of his sermons. They are 
not mere literary essays, spiced with a little churchly 
flavoring extract and read out monotonously to drowsy 


294 


THE AFTERWARD. 


worldlings, but they are winsome Gospel revelations and 
appeals from a heart strangely warmed, and by a tongue 
clothed with fire. Oh, you should just hear him! If 
sinners are the same in New York as here in Florida and 
perishing for the truth which they would gladly hear 
about, he would suit you to a “ T.” 

Thanks for the good advice from Emil Franzo to a 
novelist: But as my book is not a novel, any more than 
the '' Churchman,” nor half as much, but a simple narra- 
tive of facts and events material and spiritual, you see 
the advice is inappropriate. Besides I dO' not hold at all 
with Franzo, and think he undertook to say a wise, deep 
thing, and couldn’t, but he is by no means singular in that. 

(From The California Christian Advocate {Meth.).) 
Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

The book is a history of experiences, real and unreal, 
physical and spiritual. The things said about farming in 
Florida are well enough; the revelations about spiritual- 
ism are rhapsodies and nonsense, mixed with quotations 
from the Bible. Its reasoning is misleading, its insinua- 
tions against the Church false, and the defense of spiritu- 
alism absurd. It has some good ideas in it, but its purpose 
is to defend and propagate spiritualism. We take books 
and people for what they are without prejudice. We do 
not see what possible good such a book as this can do. 

“ Spiritual things are spiritually discerned ” says the 
good book, but it is reprehensible it seems to undertake 
the task except under the unspiritual guidance of the 
Church. Our “ Christian Advocate ” critic is presumably 
a Christian, a methodist, and therefore a converted man. 
Stand Up, beloved, and tell us when and where you were 
converted? If you are of the Simon pure stock you will 
have no difficulty, for I have learnt from Brother Caleb 
Soyer, that the hour and place of conversion are not fan- 
cies, but blessed realities — experieiices of consciousness. 
He says: The convicted sinner is in agony and the pains 
of hell are shooting through his soul. No human help 


THE AFTERWARD. 


295 


is adequate, words of hope and sympathy to the outward 
ear are empty and meaningless. Sometimes the mental 
agony under conviction of sin is so poignant that the poor 
victim falls in a swoon, while tears and prayers of the 
faithful appeal to the Divine Helper for hours until phys- 
ical exhaustion comes to all. Sometimes, the convicted 
one comes out of the swoon with a new consciousness, 
strange language on the tongue, a strange light in the 
eye, and a strange warmth in the Soul, There is a con- 
version. The burden of conscious guilt is gone. The 
agony of doubt and fear is gone. Praise and song break 
forth with thrilling power and a contagion of spiritual 
rejoicing ensues. 

Sometimes the sudden convert sees visions of heavenly 
hosts, and some loved ones gone before — a Mother, per- 
haps, appears in her celestial beauty to join in the triumph 
of her son’s deliverance. The harmony of the hovering 
spirits blends sweetly with the songs of the newly-born, 
and saints on earth hail and recognize with unspeakable 
rapture the spirit hosts. 

Brother, have you never witnessed such scenes at “ re- 
vivals ” ? Doubtless you have participated in them. Be- 
yond question you will not deny their oft occurrence. 

The unbelieving world may scoff and deride, and the 
mocker may scornfully cry out “ rhapsody and nonsense ; ” 
but you will say, not so, but the power of God hath made 
this man whole. Plis spiritual nature hath been liberated. 
The eyes of the blind have been opened, and the ears 
of the deaf unstopped, and the dead in trespasses and 
sins has been brought to life. 

The best defense of such experiences, which you be- 
lieve, and I sincerely hope, have personal knowledge of, 
will also be the sure defense of spiritualism, as taught 
and propagated in the book which you characterize as 
“ misleading ” and “ absurd,” at the same time acquitting 
your exalted self of “prejudice.” Let the “kindly light” 
anoint thee, brother, and let not the light that is in thee 


296 


THE AFTERWARD. 


be darkness any more. I wish you could hear Brother 
Caleb sing one of his favorite songs at a Conference 
meeting! I have known him to start a score of brethren 
and sisters to shouting, and hailing the angels, as it were, 
as they lovingly loitered to listen, by singing this simple 
refrain (perhaps you have sung it yourself). Dear old 
Bishop Morris used to sing it, and he was a better man 
than either of us: 

‘‘ Oh, come angel band. 

Come and around me stand ; — 

Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings 
To my eternal home; 

Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings 
To my eternal home.” 

You say “the defense of spiritualism” (in the book) 
is absurd ! ” Shut up. As to my “ insinuations against 
the Church ” being “ false ” as you say, I do not think 
your testimony would be accepted by any one who has 
knowledge of the Church of to-day and who has read 
the book. I am not an enemy of the Church, nor is spiritu- 
alism as I understand and teach it, but I am old enough 
to testify that within fifty years your branch of the Church 
has suffered from the “die back” in spiritual things, and 
is now holding to the True Vine by the slenderest liga- 
ment, to the grief of angels and men, not to speak of the 
Sacred Heart of The Christ. But a genuine revival is 
proceeding along spiritual lines and a better day is dawn- 
ing in the glory of which I pray that a new heart will be 
given you. 

(From The Living Chtirch (Prot. Episcopal).) 
Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By (Solden 
Light. 

A gossipy record of the doings on a farm in Florida. 
The moralizing, of which there is large abundance, is good, 
bright, and humorous. Many questions are broached, and 


THE AFTERWARD. 


297 


much good sense in plain, homely English enjoyed in their 
discussion. The tendency of the book is toward the 
presentation of some of the troublesome religious ques- 
tions of the day, with suggested, yet only suggested, solu- 
tions. It is well worth reading. 

(From The Banner of Light (Spiritualist, Boston).) 

The author, who says he is not a farmer by heredity, 
relates in the opening chapters matter-of-fact and amusing 
incidents of his experience while seeking to become one 
on a farm in Florida, which he claims to be the ideal life 
of man on earth. While doing so he introduces neighbors 
and friends who become interested not only in farming 
experiments, but in philosophical and religious topics, and 
eventually in Spiritualism, a discussion upon which ends 
in a seance as the most direct way of settling disputed 
points and acquiring a knowledge of what Spiritualism 
really is. The first seance was followed by others, during 
which the visits of angels to the farm in Florida were 
not few nor far between. These lead to the main purpose 
of the book, which is to inform the reader concerning the 
teachings of Spiritualism as in accordance with those of 
the Bible, which it does in a very convincing manner, with- 
out infringing upon the right of the individual to think 
for himself and to form his own opinions, 

(From The Chicago News.) 

Charles McDonald has an odd book which will hardly 
be read at all and still is decidedly an American study. 
It is by “ Golden Light ” and has the long, non-committal 
title “Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida.” It is a 
soil-luxuriating record, filled with farm advice, crop ro- 
mances, religion and gossip. Just the most sterile, plain, 
old humdrum diary in the world, jotted down in a dis- 
connected, homely way that is attractive in its own care- 
lessness. Every line mirrors the difference between a 
French “ La Terre ” despoiler and an American soil- 
describer. 

There is the same caressing friendliness a farmer feels 
toward the soil in the “ Angels’ Visits ” that Zola dwells 
upon in his hideous book. “ Golden Light ” calls the 
delight in rich, fertile ground “ a deep, subtle, spiritual 
affiliation ” and feels a sympathy responding to the tiller 
from his land according to the man’s merit. Zola makes 
the farmer’s fondness for land a greed, a vice — breathing 
love of dirt and selfish degradation. “ Golden Light ” (was 


298 


THE AFTERWARD. 


ever nom de plume so imbecile?) evinces a delicious pro- 
clivity for mincing up planting time with prayer-meeting 
and cut-worms with phantom prophesies and politics ; but 
there is enough variety and homespun philosophy to keep 
one awake till the end. When it is all over and the Flor- 
ida farm boom is lulled into psychical investigation and 
speculative soul-liberation the winged title becomes intel- 
ligible and the general gleaning of important revelations 
from “Golden Light’s” earthly heavenliness, with its pre- 
monitions, dates and Florida prospects, resolve into a 
mental almanac of obvious utility to gulf property in- 
vestors ; Buy Florida land, look out for spooks, sow cab- 
bage seed, vote the straight republican ticket, read Sidney 
Lanier and Goethe, never despair of the bean crop, ship 
onions before they sprout, chant psalms, keep one eye on 
the alliance movement and the other on beet crates. Alle- 
luia ! 


(From Siimmcrland (Progressive), California.) 

The first fifty pages of this work is devoted to spicy 
and original comment on farming in Florida and in intro- 
ducing the reader to the author’s farm and ideal life there. 
He throws about his farm life a breezy atmosphere and 
the freedom of broad fields which fascinates the reader 
with the desire for kindred rural employments, and im- 
presses one that the writer is equally skillful with the pen 
as with the plow. 

After having fully viewed the freshness and fertility 
of the fields, the author introduces the reader to a few 
of his friends, some of whom are mediums and one a 
minister, and then carefully broaches the subject of Spirit- 
ualism ; but once having entered upon it, he gives it a 
- very thorough and fair consideration, and its exposition 
occupies nearly all of the remaining two hundred pages. 
His friends discuss the subject pro and con, and with 
reference to breaking down the deeply rooted prejudices 
that the sticklers for church and creed hold against it. 
The spirits are also allowed to voice their sentiments in 
beautiful chapters of thought. 

The work is an interesting addition to the literature 
of Spiritualism, and its literary style shows an ability 
seldom met with in works of this class. 

(From Harmony (Philosophy), San Francisco, Cal.) 

This book, written in the form of a story, carries with 
it a pure and uplifting influence, and will undoubtedly 


THE AFTERWARD. 


299 


be of great interest to those who are searching for more 
light in explanation of the philosophy oi spiritualism. 
The grace and naturalness with which it is written carries 
with it a charm which leaves no room for dullness. 

(From The Detroit Commercial.) 

A book that will delight our spiritualistic friends. The 
contents are so manifold that it is impossible to give a 
synopsis of them here. It must be sufficient, therefore, 
to say that the book treats of many religious questions 
in an original manner, and that the author is an ardent 
advocate of the gospel of Spiritualism. 

(From National View, Washington, D. C.) 

The reputed author of this charming book is a Congre- 
gational minister, and his fascinating description of rural 
life among his orange groves and truck patches is not only 
highly instructive to all persons who contemplate acquir- 
ing a home in that charming land of flowers, but he draws 
a picture of home and its blissful surroundings of just 
what might be expected from a family who enjoy, among 
themselves, the constant companionship of their spirit 
friends, which gives a beautiful forecast of what happi- 
ness can be achieved in the home circle in bringing to 
earth the ‘‘ Kingdom as it is in Heaven.” This book will 
help to dispel all doubts that such a consummation can 
be achieved. 

(From the San Jose Mercury, Cal.) 

The book opens with a brief account of the author’s 
experience as a market gardener in Florida. The chapters 
forming this part are delightful reading, even to the peo- 
ple who have but little interest in gardening. There is 
an air of cheerfulness and healthy content pervading them 
that adds another charm to the style whose simple and 
quiet naturalness is in itself charming. The gardening 
chapters however are but few. They serve merely as a 
means of introducing the household and its guests. The 
main intent of the book develops in the visit to the au- 
thor’s family of a few friends, among whom are a liberal 
thinking scholar with religious and spiritualistic tendencies, 
a young woman with remarkable gifts as a medium, the 
intimate friend of the author’s daughter; a strong austere 
Southern preacher, an English Scientist engaged in making 
researches among the phosphate beds of Florida, and^ a 
gentleman and his wife from New England who are vis- 
iting the South for a winter’s holiday. These people 


300 


THE AFTERWARD. 


gather in the Floridian farm house and discuss matters 
of religion and spiritualism. The Southern preacher is 
the most earnest opponent of the spiritualistic doctrines, 
but is brought by the young lady medium into communi- 
cation with his dead wife and thereafter becomes a con- 
vert to the faith. The discussions and the seances of the 
friends of this gathering occupy the greater portion of the 
volume but there are a few closing chapters on other sub- 
jects that bring it to a graceful conclusion. A quiet, rem- 
iniscent tone pervades every portion of the work. There 
is no argument and no dogmatism. The memories of the 
writer flow serenely along and only the pleasant things of 
life, either in his planting or in his religious experiences, 
occur to him. He sees the brighter and better side of the 
world and finds his delight in dwelling upon that rather 
than upon the reverse. Even in politics he is cheerful, 
and has a good word to say for the carpet baggers of the 
Reconstruction period. The book will not appeal to a very 
large number of readers, but those who find pleasure in 
pensive reveries and in the contemplation of the serener 
aspects of religion and spiritualism, will find it a satis- 
fying book to read on quiet evenings or during the repose 
of a Sunday afternoon. 

(From The Christian Metaphysician, Chicago.) 
Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

This book grows larger and truer and grander to us 
as we read to its close. The author is in wondrous sym- 
pathy with nature and in constant communion with the 
God of Nature which is the God of the Infiniverse. 

The “ Angels,” which visit the home on the “ Florida 
farm,” are not only the miscellaneous neighbors who dwell 
upon the planet in that locality, but also those neighbors 
who dwell in the richer sphere where all are said to be 
“ ministering spirits.” This book will interest all who 
acknowledge the brotherhood of man and the parenthood 
of boundless Spirit. 

(From Unity, Chicago.) 

The tenor of it all is cheerful and wholesome and miakes 
one feel that ideal spiritualism would be a helpful belief; 
and also makes one realize how much of it really mingles 
with nearly all advancing religious beliefs. The time has 
come when even the most skeptical of intelligent people 
adrnit that there are “manifestations” beyond the expla- 
nation of mere jugglery and credulity, which give at least 


THE AFTERWARD. 


301 


a hint of a “ higher law ” not yet understood ; and some 
of the best minds of our own and other countries are 
examining and testing psychological matters in an unprej- 
udiced and scientific spirit. 

No one need turn to “Angels’ Visits” expecting a de- 
scription of phenomena, for there is none of it; but for 
the spiritual side of the matter there is much information 
in a simple way that may appeal to some. Like almost 
all other religious beliefs, Spiritualism, if kept perfectly 
pure and uncontaminated by fraud or mistakes, would 
make its believers and followers ideal persons. j. s. 


(From Wayside Lights, Hartford, Conn.) 

This book is characteristic of the period in which we 
are living, as an exponent of that catholicity of thought 
and sentiment which is seeking expression through all 
sects and parties. It is in the form of a prose idyl of 
domestic life on a Florida farm. The somewhat incon- 
gruous association of guests leads to most amicable dis- 
cussion of dogm.a and principle in which the highest type 
of spiritual unfoldment is taught by Comfort Miller and 
Mary Van Fit, as representing true Christian spiritualism. 
The arguments put forth are not based upon the physical 
phenomena which have formerly claimed attention of the 
investigator. Rev. Caleb Soyer, a Methodist minister, is 
the questioner who draws forth to a great extent the 
explanations given of the gospel and mission of spiritu- 
alism. 

The author says, “ As I am only writing a somewhat 
gossipy record of the doings on my farm, I may well be 
excused from the more pretentious talk of the philosopher, 
the poet, or the preacher,” but he has certainly given a 
combination of all in a most delightful way. The natural- 
ness of the style verges on quaintness, but the scholarly 
familiarity of easy acquaintance with acknowledged mas- 
ter minds relieves all possibility of the common-place. 

One of the chapters is made up of extracts from state- 
ments bearing upon this topic of spiritual life as distin- 
guished from physical, by Drummond, Theodore Parker, 
Henry Ward Beecher, Hudson Tuttle, Elisha Mulford, 
Storrs’ Oration, Ernest Renan, W. R. Greg, Victor Hugo, 
Goethe, and the climax is made by the words of Jesus from 
fourteenth chapter of John. Altogether the book is thor- 
oughly enjoyable and is laid down with a sense of having 
dwelt in an atmosphere of peacefulness and rest, of com- 
munion with the highest and purest. 


302 


THE AFTERWARD. 


(From Public Opinion, Washington, D. C.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

This delightful book, breathing the broad spirit of Chris- 
tianity and the brotherhood of men, resembling in a way 
the pastoral verses of Virgil, comes to us a calm and beau- 
tiful picture of the land of flowers — a book which ought 
to make the bad good and the good men better. It richly 
deserves a careful reading, 

(From New Orleans Picayune.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida, By Golden 
Light. 

A very odd book, this ; a queer, rambling, sketchy book. 
It is not a story, nor a biography. It seems' rather to be 
a sort of compilation from a diary, in which a person of 
rather strong and very religious feeling had been making 
entries of his doings, his experiences and his reading. It 
is a sort of history of one’s inner life, and albeit it is a 
little disconnected, it is very entertaining reading. 

(From New York Problem of Life.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

This is a very attractive book calculated to interest the 
thoughtful reader in the spiritual philosophy of life here 
and hereafter. This book carries with it a very luminous 
mental atmosphere and cannot fail to do great good among 
those who are on the threshold of a broader faith than 
that of their childhood. The language is beautifully ex- 
pressive, and all the ideas promulgated are sound and 
edifying. A perfect naturalness of style adds greatly to 
the charm of an intensely interesting record of personal 
spiritual experiences. 

(From Literary Digest.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

This pretty volume is uncertain as to authorship. The 
cover bears the legend : By “ Golden Lights,” but on the 
title page, and in the neat dedication “To the Rev. John 
Wesley Brown, D. D., Rector of St. Thomas’s Protestant 
Episcopal Church, New York City,” it is printed: Golden 
Light. There is no “preface,” but in an early chapter the 
author says : “ I am getting along in years, and am an 

old Floridian. ... I have personally known every prom- 
inent public character, of all shades of ambition and opin- 


-THE AFTERWARD. 


303 


ion and skin, who has appeared upon the surface of affairs 
in this State during the eventful years of the past gen- 
eration.” 

The early part of the book is a rather rambling disser- 
tation on Florida truck-farming — “truck” meaning cab- 
bages, beets, and other vegetables for the Northern mar- 
kets. In beginning the third chapter the author says : “ I 
have no special object in writing this book — no grudges 
to pay off, no enemies to punish, no speculation to boom, 
no pet theories to ventilate ; and up to the tenth chapter 
the reader is left to wonder zvhy the book was written. 
Then it becomes clear that its purpose is an argument in 
behalf of spiritualism — Christian spiritualism. At the 
comfortable farm-house is gathered a goodly company, 
consisting of the author and his lovely daughter Miriam as 
host and hostess, and their guests. Comfort Miller, an ear- 
nest and intelligent believer in spiritualism; his friend 
and fellow-student, Dr. Flavius Graeme, a chemist from 
London, who is investigating the Florida phosphate de- 
posits ; the Rev. Caleb Soyer, a deeply conscientious and 
most-thoroughly-in-earnest Methodist minister ; and lastly, 
Miriam’s bosom friend, Mary Van Elt, a beautiful girl, 
with very rare gifts of intellect and spirit, but the highest 
interest in whom centres in the fact that she is a trance- 
medium of great power, who does not regard herself as 
possessing any extraordinary gifts. These are guests at 
the farm-house for an indefinite time, and as all the com- 
pany, except the minister, are sincere believers in spiritu- 
alism, that, of course, becomes the leading topic of dis- 
cussion, and the farm-house parlor the scene of many 
seances. It is impossible to say whether the narrative of 
these is true; but it is certain that nothing is therein 
related which seems impossible or even improbable in the 
light of well-authenticated cases of clairvoyance and telep- 
athy. 

The author occasionally breaks forth into poetry; but 
the best that can be said of this feature of the book is 
that it does not occur often. Scattered through the book 
are many real gems of thought, sentiment, and diction. 
Our digest is necessarily discursive and brief. 

(From Boston Unitarian.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. By Golden 
Light. 

This volume purports to be made up of personal ex- 
periences and recollections of communications with friends 


304 


THE AFTERWARD. 


who have passed into the spirit world. Some of the ex- 
periences recounted seem very wonderful. The writer has 
written one of the most interesting books we have seen 
in favor of Spiritualism. 


(From Boston Transcript.) 

Angels’ Visits to My Farm in Florida. 

The author, who has been farming in Florida these 
many years, and who has now undertaken to narrate his 
experiences, seems to have raised successful crops of cab- 
bages, beets, onions, etc., in his well-ploughed fields, and 
an overwhelming amount of Spiritualistic ideas in the ter- 
ritory of mind. These latter are spread over about 300 
pages of good paper. Without intending any disrespect, 
we cannot help thinking that the writer would have done 
better to have devoted his entire time to raising earthly 
vegetables. 


The Transcript may be right, but its opinion should have 
been strengthened by a little more definite arraignment 
of this author and his book. The truth probably is that 
the philosophical critic of the Boston Transcript see- 
ing that the book before him was written by a plain 
uncritical farmer, without literary pretentions or god- 
fatherhood, concluded, without reading much beyond the 
title page, —that nothing good could come out of such 
a Nazareth. “ Without intending any disrespect, we can- 
not help thinking that ” our critic would do honor to him- 
self and inflict no serious loss upon literature, were he 
to lay aside the pen of the critic and take to farming 
awhile. 

I will even go so far as to offer him a place suited to 
his capacity under farmer Dan, who would soon develop 
this tyro of literature into a proper man of industry and 
sense. 

Boston is one of our best markets for fruits and veg- 
etables and if I should give you the names of my Com- 
mission Merchants they would tell you that our brand 
is taken on sight at the top of the market. I am pleased 


THE AFTERWARD. 


305 


to feel that our “ ideas ” also are respected and appreciated 
in that cultured city, the Transcript to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 


THE BREATH OF INFINITE SWEETNESS 

The following letter which was promptly forwarded to 
me is one of many received from dear friends, known and 
unknown in the flesh, to whom the lessons of “ Angels’ 
Visits” carried, if not instruction, comfort and hope. To 
be the recipient of one such letter, is compensation enough 
for the toil of authorship, and you will agree with me that 
so sweet and appreciative a letter ought to entirely neu- 
tralize the stinging pain caused by any amount of unkind 
criticism. 


HEART TO HEART. 

Letter to the author from a Christian lady who has been 
bereaved of all her children : 

“ I send you a thousand thanks for your book. It has 
been read with deepest interest. I take it up often, and 
sometimes one portion most attracts me, and again an- 
other. 

“ The passages that speak so tenderly of Miriam and her 
sainted Mother always touch my heart. Your description 
of ‘Farm Life’ in the ‘Land of Flowers’ makes it ap- 
pear full of charm, but then the farmer must have eye 
and ear attuned to all the beauty and melody of Nature. 

“The subject, of course, that interests us most deeply 
is ‘ Christian Spiritualism.’ 

“ There are no truer words of yours, than these : — 

“ ‘ The promise of re-union after death in some bright 
clime, when separation will never need to be, more, is 
consoling in a limited sense, for always there is a standing 
doubt, and the eyes of faith cannot see for tears.’ 

“ Love, in matters of deepest concern, demands absolute 
certainty, and the conditions of the future life seem to 
me a matter of faith, rather than of knowledge. 

“ Positive knowledge of the heavenly joy of finding 


3o6 


THE AFTERWARD. 


again our long-missing treasures, might, however, so fill 
us with home-sickness, that there would be no heart left 
for daily cares and duties. 

“ You say, ‘ The blessed evangelism of Spiritualism 
parts the Veil, and the lost are found. There is hardly 
a mystery — only a revelation and a recognition. The 
living spirit is helped to announce itself, and proves its 
identity by all the signs that love alone interprets. , . . 
Spiritualism teaches and demonstrates, that life is imme- 
diately, if conditions are found, and them also it reveals — 
manifestible, so as to be recognized, and known by all the 
marks and tokens that the senses can take in.’ 

“ Never, in all the weary years since our dear ones left 
ns, and our home, desolate, have we been conscious of 
their presence. At times, it seemed that they were very 
near, and that a breath of indnite sweetness touched our 
lips, but this was supposed to be simply our owfi imag- 
ining. 

“ It is a mystery to me how positive assurance of the 
nearness of our beloved, and how interviews with them 
can be reached, except in those rare instances, like ‘ Mary 
Van Elt ’ and 'Comfort Miller,’ perhaps, upon whom 
special gifts have been bestowed. 

“ I hope your charming book will find many apprecia- 
tive readers, and that through it, you will be a ministering 
angel to many a suffering soul. s. l. d. 

“Knoxville, Tenn., July 23, 1892.” 

REPLY. 

Ah ! dear heart, your loved ones of whom you speak 
so tenderly were just as near as they seemed to be, when 
that “ breath of infinite sweetness touched your lips ” — 
near enough to touch your lips. Do not doubt it. 

Imagination is resourceful and often tends to harmonize 
the discords of the soul, and it becomes the almoner of 
the impalpable presence. But it does not touch the lips 
from without, as with some wandering “ breath of infinite 
sweetness,” this, believe me, comes from the purposeful 
dear one who thus, so deftly, penetrates the veil. 

Think of that grand old prophet whose lips were touched 
by a live coal taken from the altar. An angel did it. 
And so, — and so — and so. 


THE AFTERWARD. 


307 


Withdraw not your appealing face, discourage not your 
little faith, it will to sight improve, and not alone shall 
your lips be touched by the loving caress, but your heart 
also shall overflow with the realization and the recogni- 
tion. Golden Light. 




lUL 









